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Husband of Jade Goody 'assaulted cab driver'
Bo Wilson02.03.09
JADE GOODY'S husband grabbed a taxi driver round the throat and threatened to "bite his head off" as he drove at 50mph, a court heard today.
Jack Tweed, 21, also said he would stab the cabbie during a four-letter row over the fare, it is alleged.
The court case began as terminally ill Goody, 27, was facing emergency surgery intended to ease the excruciating pain she is suffering from her cancer. Tweed is accused of assaulting 54-year-old Stephen Wilkins as he drove him and his friends home from a night out.
Mr Wilkins told Epping magistrates he picked up Tweed, a male friend and two women outside Club 195 in Epping last May and was asked to drive them to Loughton and Hornchurch.
The cabbie said the women sat on the men's laps on the back seat and, despite warning them it was illegal, he was told by one of the men to "just drive". He turned his Mercedes around when the men refused to pay the fare in advance.
Mr Wilkins said the man behind him, whom he later picked out from a video identity parade to be Tweed, grabbed him around the throat with his right arm as he drove at 50mph.
Giving evidence to the court, Mr Wilkins said: "The one sitting behind me said, 'Just f***ing drive you c**t' - he was very aggressive and threatening.
"He pulled his arm around my neck and pulled me tightly against the headrest. He pulled his face up, leaning on the side of my face, screaming, 'I will stab you.' It was very, very dangerous."
Mr Wilkins said the car went into a "half spin" and ended up in the middle of the road. He added: "He was spitting in my face, saying, 'I'll bite your f***ing head off'. We were both struggling. I was saying, 'Can we just pull off the road because if a car comes around the corner we are all going to die?' I was very, very scared." The driver said the other man was laughing and chanting throughout the attack.
Mr Wilkins said that after a struggle he managed to stop his car on a grass verge. Tweed, from Buckhurst Hill, who married Jade just over a week ago, denies a charge of assault by beating.
In cross-examination Tania Panagiotapoulou, defending, said there was no attack and no handbrake turn, to which Mr Wilkins replied: "Yes there was." He added: "The guy tried to strangle me. I was very distraught. One guy was strangling me, near on killed me.
"We were very lucky we weren't killed. He should be here for attempted murder in my opinion."
The trial continues.
Jade Goody left the Royal Marsden Hospital in an ambulance shortly before noon today and was taken to the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital. She was wearing a white hospital gown and had a blanket over her knee as she was taken to the waiting ambulance in a wheelchair.
The reality TV star could be seen breathing occasionally from an oxygen bottle.
