ANTHONY MARCUS JONES, 43, a taxi driver from Hawthorn Path, Mount Estate, Milford Haven has been sentenced to ten years in jail for rape.

The sentencing hearing took place at Swansea Crown Court on Monday (Apr 12), following a guilty verdict at a previous hearing.

The defendant had already been remanded into custody.

Jones, who was working for local taxi firm Kars Kabs at the time, was working a late shift on a Saturday in April 2018.

On the same night, the victim was out for a night on the town in Milford Haven.

In the early hours of the Sunday morning, the victim was seen on camera in a Milford Haven bar.

In an extremely drunken state and unable to converse, staff at the premises decided it was best to call her a taxi shortly after 1am.

A ‘Kars Kabs’ taxi responded, Anthony Marcus Jones was not the driver.

At this point, Anthony Marcus Jones was hackneying for business in Haverfordwest, a normal technique used by Milford Haven taxi drivers as business ‘dries up’ in Milford earlier than in Haverfordwest.

The victim was put into the back of a Kars Kabs taxi and the driver headed off towards the home address of the victim.

When the taxi pulled into her street, the victim was too inebriated to point out her house, even after several minutes of being asked.

After this, she became unresponsive.

Eager to return his passenger safely and becoming frustrated by her apparent lack of coherency, the Kars Kabs driver contacted his colleague, Anthony Marcus Jones, who had known the victim for years, to assist in getting her home.

At that point it was decided that the best thing that could be done would be for Jones to get the victim home, Jones however couldn’t leave Haverfordwest as he was in the middle of a run.

It was decided that the Kars Kabs taxi from Milford Haven would take the victim to Haverfordwest multi-storey car park where the victim would then be transferred into the taxi operated by Jones who would then return to Milford Haven, this would also allow the taxi drivers to effectively swap towns ensuring that no business would be missed.

This exchange took place at about 1:30am.

Minutes later Jones was seen on camera heading back towards Milford Haven via Haverfordwest High Street.

At this point Jones did not take her to her home address as planned, he took her to a car park where he admitted engaging in sexual intercourse in the back of his taxi.

Forty minutes after leaving Haverfordwest, the victim finally made it home missing several items of clothing and wearing Jones’ jacket.

She was put straight to bed by friends.

The victim was in so much of a state that night that she claimed to have ‘slept the whole next day’.

Later that day, Jones spoke to a friend and boasted about what he had done to the victim, he asked his friend not to tell the taxi firms boss.

The Kars Kabs owner was then messaged via Instagram by a friend of the victim who asked him where her missing items were and how to get Jones’ jacket back to him.

This was the first time the Kars Kabs owner knew that anything happened in his taxi.

At this point he messaged Jones and asked him to return the victim’s items, a regular event for taxi companies after busy nights out and thought no more about it.

The following Tuesday, the owner of the now defunct Kars Kabs was informed of what had happened, fired Anthony Jones and informed the police, leading to Jones’ arrest.

On sentencing Judge Paul Thomas QC told the defendant it must have been obvious to him how intoxicated his fare was and he had “cynically and callously” taken advantage of her.

He told Jones he had treated the woman “like a piece of meat for you to use sexually as you wished” and said he had had sex with her when “she was at best semi-conscious” and unaware of what was going on.

The judge said with Jones having a previous caution for assaulting a woman he ought not to have been working as a taxi driver.

Jones was sentenced to 10 years in prison and will serve two-thirds of that period before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.

The judge said he was conscious of the fact that the attack took place three years ago and described the delay as “inexcusable”.

His Honour Judge Paul Thomas QC said that issues with disclosure of evidence had led to two previous trials collapsing.

The trial judge has demanded that a senior officer in the case must now appear before him to explain what had happened.

As well as the ten year term in prison, it was also decided at Swansea Crown Court on Monday (Apr 12) that Jones’ details would be entered onto the sex offender’s register for an indefinite term.