Enormous operation to catch predatory rapist cabbie only 'scratched surface' of his crimes
| Date | 27 June 2021 |
| Published date | 27 June 2021 |
Merseyside Police also believed a sex worker was abducted and raped by the same man in the Sefton Park area, although not while he was driving a taxi.
READ MORE: Prison officer who had baby with inmate is now in jail herself
The case sparked Operation Hackney, an enormous dragnet to flush out one of the most dangerous predators the city has seen -a man eventually identified as 29-year-old Frederick Manssuer of Croxteth Lane, Prescot.
Police used a designated area of the Kings Dock in the city centre to encourage all 6,000 registered cabbies in the region to come in to be interviewed and have their photos taken for "elimination purposes".
The ECHO spoke to retired Detective Superintendent Albert Kirby, then the head of the Serious Crime Squad which handled the investigation, about what happened.
Moustached monster
The attacks were broadly similar, on lone passengers usually in the early hours of the morning.
The suspect, described as of muscular build and with a moustache, would suddenly veer away from the passenger's intended destination before stopping in a secluded area and forcing himself on the terrified women.
In one particularly harrowing 1989 case, a 38-year-old mum of two was dragged from the cab by her hair in the car park of a sports centre in Stanley Park, Anfield, and raped.
Several of the victims managed to fight him off.
As the attacks continued and the evidence pointed to the same offender, trapping the serial rapist become the top priority for Merseyside Police's Serious Crime Squad.
Mr Kirby said: "Manssuer was a horrible, objectionable man who lived up to the type of conduct and behaviour that he had inflicted on those women.
"He really was an absolute slimeball.
"We were never able to say for sure, but I remember one witness had described seeing him clean out his cab in the early hours of the morning.
"The gentleman saw he had a pair of women's underwear in the back of his cab, and Manssuer made some excuse that he had picked up a woman who could not afford the fare so he had his evil way with her instead.
"It is not unusual in these kind of cases that he could have been keeping trophies from his victims."
Taxi drivers in the city were also keen to help root out the predator in their ranks, making women feel unsafe to use their services.
Operation Hackney
Mr Kirby, who also headed the...
To continue reading
Request your trial