TAXI DRIVER JAILED FOR ABUSING SISTERS
Gary Voy denied any involvement in the heinous crimes against two young girls, one as young as three and the other six at the time.However, after a six-day trial at Dumbarton Sheriff Court, a jury composed of nine men and six women rendered a guilty verdict by majority.
The 42-year-old, who previously attended Braidfield High School, appeared again in court last week to be sentenced for offenses that profoundly affected his victims, who did not come forward until two decades later.
During the trial held in April, both women—now aged 36 and 32 and mothers themselves—recounted enduring a series of degrading acts and being threatened by Voy that harm would come to their family if they disclosed the abuse.
For legal reasons, their identities are protected.
They only reported the crimes after one sister observed Voy transporting young children from a primary school without supervision in his taxi.
The older sister testified that she was visiting Voy’s home with her mother in 1985, when she was six and Voy was 14.
He initially attempted to kiss her, which escalated to touching her private areas, with the abuse recurring multiple times at a Clydebank residence over two years.
As a result, she began avoiding the address to escape Voy’s presence.
The jury was told that Voy then focused his abuse on the younger sister, who was victimized from 1985 to 1992, between the ages of three and eleven.
The court heard this abuse “destroyed” her and contributed to her turning to alcohol and drugs from the age of 11, as well as her refusal to attend school and her eventual placement in care.
She even attempted to take her own life.
Earlier during the proceedings, her mother expressed her shock upon learning, ten years after the latest assault, that Voy was responsible.
The mother, 59, testified that her youngest daughter had been a happy child until around age eleven, when she "turned into a right little horror." She mentioned her daughter used a dummy until age eleven, which led her to seek advice from their family doctor about her concerns, but she only discovered the truth when her daughter was 20.
Describing her feelings when her daughter implicated Voy, the mother said: “I was horrified.
I just could not believe it.
I had trusted him to look after my baby.
I was sick, physically sick.” The defense lawyer, Paul Mullen, pointed out inconsistencies between the testimonies given in court and the police statements made when the allegations were first reported in 2012.
He argued: “If you look at the evidence and ask yourselves if it has been corroborated beyond all reasonable doubt, then I suggest it has not.
If you come to that conclusion, then you must acquit Gary Voy.” Prosecutor Sarah Healing characterized Voy as a “manipulative, arrogant and overconfident sexual predator” who “smirked his way through the evidence.” After two hours of deliberation, the jury found him guilty on both charges.
Sheriff Thomas McCartney, noting that Voy, who has no prior convictions, was convicted of serious crimes, cautioned him that a substantial prison sentence was likely.
On the following Wednesday, Sheriff McCartney sentenced Voy to two years in prison and ordered him to register as a sex offender for the next ten years.
