Caught cabbie in court

A Brisbane taxi driver has told the Magistrates Court that in the wake of the recent attempted air hijacking, he was duty bound to personally frisk paying passengers to ensure their safety and to preserve the integrity of his taxi cabin.
Morrison Barnum Edison Bezzle, of Lot 3, Low Water Mark on Russell Island, told the court he had decided to begin thorough body searches as routine practice to ensure the safety of other people in his cab, following the hijacking incident on a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Launceston.
Bezzle has pleaded not guilty to 21 counts of indecent assault of divers persons he picked up at the Virgin and Qantas taxi ranks at Brisbane Airport since the hijacking.
Bezzle told the magistrate that as captain of Fleet Non-Air Taxi Services Pty Ltd (in liquidation) he was an ardent supporter of multiple-hiring, both for keeping costs down and to protect the environment. As this meant his taxi was often filled to its carrying capacity, he had sought and received counsel from a criminal lawyer who advised that he could be held criminally negligent if passengers were not searched thoroughly and any person was injured in any subsequent hijacking.
The police prosecutor told the court that on the first incident, Bezzle had picked up seven paying passengers on a multiple-hiring basis. He had proceeded southbound to take his front-seat passenger to Labrador on the Gold Coast, before returning north to drop off his backseat passengers, an Indian family of six, to their Bald Hills home.
It was alleged that as the 1977 Kingswood grey-and-white taxi travelled over the Gateway Bridge, Bezzle leant over and fondled the breasts of his front-seat passenger, saying "Let's have a closer look at these beauties, then!".
Bezzle told the court that the breast region was a logical place for any would-be female hijacker to secrete a weapon.
He had become convinced that the front of the woman's blouse clearly showed the outline of pointed wooden stakes that could easily have been used to place his taxi and the other passengers at great risk, and had acted accordingly.
The hearing is unfinished.