October 4, 2007
Sex pest posed as 'cabbie'
A GIRL died as she fell from a car — after a sex pest posed as a cabbie to abduct her, a court heard yesterday.
Travel agent Stephanie Hammill, 20, was walking home from a night out with her boyfriend when a Merc pulled up.
They thought it was a taxi so she climbed in — but the court was told that driver Ioannis Revenikiotis, 28, sped off with Stephanie’s leg sticking out of the open door.
She tumbled out a mile later into the path of another car and died at the scene as Revenikiotis allegedly drove off.
The Greek national, an electrical engineer, had a history of sexually harassing women, the prosecutor told Sheffield Crown Court.
Alistair MacDonald, QC, told the jury: “He was interested in pursuing her sexually.
“This is why she left a moving car on the night of her death.”
The court heard how Stephanie had been a few yards ahead of boyfriend James Garland when she got in the Mercedes in Wakefield, West Yorks, in November 2003.
As it moved off they called out each others names — then the passenger door slammed shut.
The car drove past the house they shared and she then either fell or jumped out. Stephanie was hit by an oncoming taxi.
The court was told that Revenikiotis, of Dewsbury, West Yorks, fled Britain for Greece after the incident but was arrested there in 2005 and brought back for trial.
He denies kidnap and manslaughter.
The trial continues.
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