A gel blaster-wielding vigilante who robbed and bashed a taxi driver after the cabbie was falsely accused of rape has been jailed.

Mark Thomas Kilminster was “triggered” when a girl told him she had just been sexually assaulted by a cab driver, a Brisbane court has been told.

But what had actually happened was the girl assaulted the taxi driver and fled with his phone.

She and two other girls had also refused to pay their fare after the cab arrived at a property at Inala in Brisbane’s south in July 2021.

Entirely fictional ‘rape’

Inside the girl told Kilminster she had been raped by the taxi driver, prompting a group to emerge from the house and throw rocks at the car.

The cabbie went to the police station but after making a complaint was followed by another car for about 10km.

Kilminster – armed with a gel blaster – had driven around looking for the taxi, having been given the licence plate number by one of the girls.

The 41-year-old drove dangerously in pursuit until the taxi driver stopped at his father’s house.

Kilminster – a father-of-three who was on parole at the time – pointed the gel blaster at the taxi driver and told him he would shoot if he got out of the car.

The cab driver tried to appease Kilminster by handing over $200 but instead was hit nine times on the head with the butt of the gel blaster before escaping.

“Vigilantism must be deterred by the courts (but) if (the girl) had told the truth this would never have happened,” Brisbane District Court Judge Paul Smith said of the incident.

Slather of charges

Kilminster pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, threatening violence at night, armed robbery in company with personal violence, deprivation of liberty and wilful damage.

Judge Smith on Friday handed him a sentence of four years and six months but ordered he be eligible for parole on December 23.

Kilminster has already spent 370 days behind bars. He is disqualified from holding a driver’s licence for a year.

-AAP