A BROTHER and sister have been jailed for a vicious attack on a taxi driver.
Adam Lynch and his sister, Kimberley, both of Dalton, set upon taxi driver Rashid Ahmed in June last year.
Adam, 25, racially abused him while his 26-year-old sister repeatedly hit Mr Ahmed with a stiletto shoe during an incident on Somerset Road between Aspley and Almondbury.
Prosecutor Duncan Ritchie told the court how Mr Ahmed had asked the pair and their friend to get out of his taxi when Adam Lynch began to abuse him.
He stopped his vehicle in Somerset Road, but Adam Lynch grabbed him and punched him in the face.
Kimberley Lynch then joined in the assault using her shoe to hit Mr Ahmed about five or six times on the back of his head.
The victim was left with a cut to the back of his head and a bruise below his left eye.
Adam Lynch was found guilty after a trial of racially aggravated assault and his 26-year-old sister admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Judge Peter Benson was told that the incident happened a few weeks after Adam Lynch was given a suspended prison sentence for wounding a man with a glass.
His sister was on bail for a previous assault when she hit a woman with a small baseball bat.
Having been bailed again, Kimberley Lynch then assaulted Pc Mark Hall in February this year when he and a colleague were called to an incident outside the Lion pub in Almondbury.
While Lynch was in a police van she spat in the officer’s face, bit him on the forearm and tried to scratch his face.
Kimberley Lynch, of Daw Royds, Almondbury, was jailed for a total of 21 months for the three offences of assault.
Her brother, of the same address, was also locked up for a total of 21 months after the judge imposed 18 months for the racial attack on the taxi driver and 12 weeks from the suspended prison sentence.
The court heard that alcohol was involved in all the offending and Kimberley Lynch’s barrister described her as a very different person when she was sober.
Judge Benson described the behaviour towards the taxi driver as "appalling" and said police officers going about their duty also deserved the protection of the courts.
