He prowled the streets of Liverpool in a white Mercedes van, searching for a vulnerable woman to target. Damian Watson, 36, parked outside Anfield Stadium near the Shankly Gates, a place of pilgrimage for thousands of football fans, but on this night it became the staging ground for a predatory crime.
The newspaper delivery driver, of no fixed address but formerly of Liscard, Wirral, had been driving around the city centre looking for a lone female victim. Shortly after 11.30pm, a woman who had attended an event at the stadium booked an Uber to take her to Concert Square to meet friends. She climbed into Watson’s van, believing it was her ride.
“Fake Uber driver Damian Watson jailed for five years and six months after kidnapping a woman outside Anfield.”
Almost immediately, the doors locked. Instead of heading to the city centre, Watson drove to a secluded alleyway in Bootle. The woman looked out of the window, confused. Then her phone buzzed with a notification: her Uber had been cancelled. Alarmed, she asked where she was. “You’re in Bootle now, love,” Watson replied.
When she asked again to be taken to the city centre, he turned to her and demanded she expose her breasts. Panicked, she tried to open the door but found it locked. Watson repeated his demand four times in an aggressive manner, then unbuckled his seatbelt, telling her he would let her out if she complied. The court heard she was “extremely scared” and complied under duress because she feared he was going to rape her.
Watson then drove off, only to stop again and repeat the demand. He told her he “wouldn’t touch her” but insisted she expose herself a second time. “The defendant was not satisfied with the view he had and asked her to move so that he could see her breasts better,” prosecutor Neil Bisarya told Liverpool Crown Court. It was only when the woman was in distress and hyperventilating that Watson stopped his demands.
He had filmed the entire ordeal by attaching his mobile phone to the centre console of the van. After keeping her captive for around 20 to 30 minutes, he drove her into the city centre and let her out at the junction of Berry Street and Seel Street.
Under interview, Watson admitted giving her a lift but denied making any sexual requests. On Friday, he was sentenced to five years and six months in prison. CCTV footage showed him driving around the city in his van, “looking for a vulnerable female to target and to commit a sexual offence,” Bisarya said.
Outside court, the question lingers: how many more women might have been targeted had Watson not been caught?