A JUDGE has voiced his anger at a blunder that delayed the trial of a man who Tasered a teenager and repeatedly beat her.
Jay Dyce, who admits punching, slapping and whipping the girl with a belt, denies raping her while filming it.
The 21-year-old has admitted three counts of causing actual bodily harm and possessing an offensive weapon, but is standing trial on one count of rape and one charge of false imprisonment.
His trial was due to resume at Oxford Crown Court at 10am yesterday but did not get under way until 10.45am after the van bringing him from Bullingdon Prison near Bicester took a detour via Amersham in Buckinghamshire.
The £90m-a-year Ministry of Justice transport contract is held by GEOAmey, which began operating the service in August.
Yesterday, Judge Anthony King said of the delay: “This is totally and utterly unacceptable and I’m having steps taken to explain why yet again GEOAmey have let us down.”
A GEOAmey spokesperson said yesterday: “GEOAmey apologise for the delay in the delivery of a defendant to Oxford Crown Court today. We conduct over 2,000 transfers per day. As with any incident of this nature, we are conducting a thorough investigation.”
Just two weeks ago the same judge presided over a case in which a murder suspect became accidentally handcuffed to a GEOAmey guard and had to be cut free by firefighters.
The cuffs were eventually removed with bolt croppers.
The case was delayed by about an hour.
And in September a GEOAmey van was sent from Southampton to Banbury to drive a suspected criminal a few yards from the town’s police station to the neighbouring magistrates’ court.
Criticising the decision at the time, Judge Tom Corrie said: “The new contractor is still settling in to the revised and cheaper contract, which, it was told to us, would be more efficient than the previous one.”
He added: “Time will tell. The evidence is building up.”
In this week’s trial jurors saw three mobile phone clips, taken by Dyce, of a sex act being performed by the girl in October.
The girl said only one of the three clips, which total about 15 minutes, featured a consensual act.
The girl said Dyce, of Gaisford Road, Cowley, had also threatened to throw boiling water over her and set fire to her hair on a gas hob.
Describing the moment she was Tasered, she said: “It made my leg and arm go totally numb. I felt out of breath, that I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t take a deep breath.”
Under cross-examination the girl admitted having full consensual sex with Dyce on the night of the alleged rape.
The trial continues.
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