Taxi driver travelled to Swindon to rape and abuse 9-year-old girl

Brian William Smith had been speaking to a person online he thought was a mother who was going to allow him to rape her nine-year-old daughter.

But it turned out to be an undercover police officer, who arrested him as he arrived at Swindon train station, armed with Vaseline and condoms.

Smith, appearing in the courtroom via video link from HMP Bullingdon, was tearful throughout much of the sentencing hearing.

It was heard he was “instantly apologetic” when arrested but later tried to minimise his actions, saying nothing would have happened.

He was jailed for two years and eight months, having pleaded guilty at an earlier occasion.

Brian Smith

Swindon Crown Court heard last Friday (March 18) that the 67-year-old had made contact with the undercover police officer online in December 2021. He made “the first move” and asked the woman about her daughter, prosecutor Rob Welling said.

“The defendant increased the stakes and the odds,” he continued.

“He encouraged her to allow him to have access to the fictional child so she could perform sex acts on them.

The court was told how Smith sent a video of him masturbating and also had a three-way discussion with her.

After about two weeks, Smith agreed to travel from Holbrook Close in Enfield to Swindon, in order to meet the mother and her daughter.

When he arrived at the station, police officers were waiting to arrest him.

“He was instantly apologetic upon arrest at the train station and was very frank in his interview at the police station, expecting there to be oral sex, there to be sexual intercourse, to be sharing a bed [with both girls],” Mr Welling continued.

Defending, Emma Handslip said that her client, a taxi driver in the capital for 25 years, had a “great sense of shame for himself”.

“He is someone 67 years of age, that hasn’t come to police attention before. Covid has led him to go into a fantasy world and it has come out in the way that it has.

Swindon station

“This is somebody who has learnt a very, very serious lesson, there has been no previous concerns in the job he was doing.

“I can’t get away from the fact that it is risky behaviour. It is serious offences for which he is going to have to pay a serious price. All he would say is this is something he is deeply ashamed of, he can’t undo, he can’t turn back time.

“Perhaps there is an element that he can’t accept, but he wants to express to the court that this is someone at 67 years of age is losing his good character.”

Sentencing, Recorder Adam Vaitilingam QC said that Smith “obviously believed that this was going to lead to a sexual encounter”.

He jailed Smith for two years and eight months arranging the commission of a child sex offence, and a 12-month concurrent sentence for attempting to cause a child under 13 to look at an image of sexual activity.