** We would like to make it clear that current York taxi driver Matthew Knowles, 44, has nothing to do with this case, has never been convicted of any crimes, and is not related to his namesake, the man at the centre of this case, who is a former taxi driver of Bellhouse Way **
A former taxi driver who sexually groomed a teenage girl by leaving cash gifts in parks and followed her around in his car has been spared prison.
Matthew Knowles, 45, contacted the girl on Instagram and then told her where she would find the “bribes”, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Shannon Woodley said that Knowles, from York, met the victim twice – once when she picked up £100 cash and Lottery scratch-card tickets from outside a community centre and on another occasion when she was persuaded to meet the him at a local rugby club where he gifted her a new iPhone.
It’s thought that Knowles had followed the victim around in his car because he once messaged her to say he “liked her shorts”.
The disgraced businessman, who has since quit his job as a taxi driver, was charged with two counts of meeting a child following sexual grooming and one count of possessing an indecent image of a child.
He admitted possessing the indecent photo but denied the two offences of meeting the girl following grooming.
However, a jury found him guilty of the offences following a trial in August. The grooming occurred between 1 November and 31 December, 2020.
Ms Woodley said that Knowles, of Bellhouse Way, used Instagram to talk to the under-age girl “using grooming-type behaviour”.
On one occasion, he sent her a message saying: “If you go to Tesco and stand outside for five minutes, I’ll give you £20.”
The girl, who can’t be named for reasons, was sent a photo of a £20 note on a bench near the supermarket and went with friends to collect it.
Bizarrely, married Knowles told her he was a father, a taxi driver and “had a dog”, all of which was true, making him readily “identifiable”.
He went on to leave cash “in various places at various times” in the same area, sometimes at a local park.
On one occasion, Knowles told the girl he had left her £100 at a park inside a card in which he had written: “Love you.”
“He never asked for sexual pictures but asked for pictures of her face,” said Ms Woodley.
Vodka and beer
At Hallowe’en, he bought her a bottle of vodka and a pack of beer “for her and her friends to drink”.
He then arranged to meet her at a rugby club in York in November 2020 with the promise of a new iPhone. The girl turned up and saw a taxi drive into the rugby club.
“She messaged him to say she was there,” said Ms Woodley. “He said, ‘Come to my car’.”
The girl went over because “she wanted the phone” while Knowles remained in the taxi, having left the iPhone on the roof.
“He asked how she was and said the phone was on top of the car and she took it,” added Ms Woodley.
“He was still trying to speak to her, but she said she had to leave. He offered to give her a lift to school but she refused.”
The girl gave Knowles £120 for the phone, but this was “significantly less than it was worth”, said Ms Woodley.
At the second meeting outside a community centre in a York suburb, the girl turned up with a friend to collect £100 and two Lottery scratch-card tickets from the cabbie who was about 30 years her senior.
Knowles subsequently contacted the other girl asking why the victim hadn’t been replying to his messages.
The victim’s friend thought it was “weird” that he had contacted her. The messages were found on her phone by her parents who contacted police.
A further message sent by Knowles to the victim in mid-January 2021 enabled police to trace him.
‘Lost the plot’
Investigations revealed that Knowles had also been having “highly sexualised conversations with random people” using the KIK messenger app.
The debauched chats were about “having sex with young girls” including the teenager he had been grooming, although there was no sexual activity between them.
“During one conversation he was sent the Category C indecent image of a young female between 11 and 13 years,” said Ms Woodley.
Knowles had also searched for “the definition of a paedophile” on the internet and “what age do girls start puberty”.
He was arrested in March 2021 when he admitted meeting the girl on two occasions but denied any sexual motive.
Ms Woodley said Knowles had used “gifts or bribes” to lure the girl and that his conversations with others online suggested he ultimately intended to have sex with the victim “had he not been caught”.
Defence barrister Sean Smith said Knowles appeared to have “lost the plot” at this particular “spell in his life” when he was experiencing some sort of mental turmoil.
He said that Knowles had since set up his own removals company and was the sole breadwinner for his family.
Recorder Paul Reid said it was a “bizarre and extraordinary” case because Knowles had never been involved in such behaviour before or since.
He said it was evident that Knowles had been “going through an extremely difficult period at the time of these offences in relation to your mental health” while working “in a rather solitary occupation”.
He said it was “appropriate” that the inevitable prison sentence was suspended due to the financial effect it would have on Knowles’s family and the fact there had been no explicit sexual chat with the victim.
The 18-month jail sentence was suspended for two years. Knowles was ordered to complete a maximum 90-day sex-offenders’ programme and up to 30 rehabilitation-activity days.
He was also ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. He was placed on the sex-offenders’ register and made subject to a ten-year sexual-harm-prevention order to curb his online activities and prohibit him from having any advertent contact with girls under 16 years of age.