A KIDNAPPER from Exminster has been jailed for trying to abduct a lone woman at a bus stop so he could sexually assault her in his woodland den nearby.

David Taylor wrote a ’chilling’ plan for how he was going to carry out the attack and had a mask, hammer, screwdrivers, gloves and a set of handcuffs in his rucksack when he did so.

He waited until a woman was waiting on her own at a bus stop in Exminster at 7am before moving behind her and putting a Tesco carrier bag over her head.

She struggled to break free and he responded by putting his arm around her throat and pinching her in the face so violently that he broke her glasses and left a permanent scar on her cheek.

Taylor was only stopped from dragging her into adjacent woodland because a woman who was driving to work saw the attack and jumped out of her car to go to the rescue.

Police using the force helicopter tracked Taylor into the woods which were only 50 metres away from the bus stop and found him near a firepit and makeshift den.

His room in a supported living home was searched and a document was found which contained a plan to kidnap and rape a woman. Pictures on his phone showed he had scouted the bus stop and other potential targets.

The victim was left so terrified that she could not leave home for a fortnight and then needed lifts to work because she could not face getting on a bus. She still feels sick whenever she passes the bus stop where she was attacked or sees a Tesco bag.

She wrote a personal statement, addressed to Taylor, in which she said: ’I feel like a completely different person from I used to be. I am scared all the time. It has affected my family. They are devastated by what you have done.

’You say you have nothing personal against me. I tell you that I take it very personally. I would like to thank the woman who came to help me. If not for her, he would not have run away like the coward he is.’

Taylor, aged 22, of Main Road, Exminster, admitted attempted kidnap with intent to commit a sexual assault and assault causing actual bodily harm. 

He was jailed for four years and nine months with an eight year extended licence by Judge Peter Johnson at Exeter Crown Court, where he certified him as a dangerous offender.

He told him: ’You observed the victim before and, after careful planning, you went there intending to abduct and sexually assault her. This was a terrifying attack upon her.

’A note was found in your room and its contents were chilling. It has been said to be fantastical. That may be so, but it gives an insight into the motive behind the attack.

’The effect on the victim was dramatic and traumatic. She thought she was going to die. Underlying all of this was your intention to drag her away to your lair and sexually assault her.’

The judge ordered a reward of £500 should be made to Charlotte Smith, the young woman who heard the victim’s screams and ran to her rescue. He described Ms Smith as plucky and commendable.

Mr Joss Ticehurst, prosecuting, said the attack happened at about 7am on April 8 last year at the bus stop in Exminster which was close to Taylor’s home and next to the woods where he had a den.

He told staff at the hostel he was going to his den when he left with two rucksacks, later found to contain the items he planned to use in the kidnap.

The victim struggled and screamed when the Tesco bag was put over her head and motorist Charlotte Smith stopped and ran to rescue her, causing Taylor to run into the woods.

He was arrested but told police he had no memory of what he had done and said it was all a blur.

Mr Lee Bremridge, defending, said Taylor’s case was a sad indictment of the care system in which he suffered an unsettled childhood, being shuffled from placement to placement without any chance to form any normal emotional attachment.

He suffers from mild learning difficulties and autism, emotionally unstable personality disorder and a psychosis which was untreated at the time of the attack.

He has a history of self-harm and created the note in the hope of relieving his emotional tension, rather than as a blueprint for an attack. He had never intended any sexual activity to go as far as rape.

by crown court reporter