A FORMER Minehead taxi driver failed to appear in court last week on charges of historical rape and sexual assaults on a young girl.

District Judge Angela Brereton, sitting in Taunton Magistrates Court on Thursday (January 29) issued an arrest warrant without bail for David Wylie, aged 65.

Wylie, of Higher Rodhuish Road, Withycombe, faces five charges dating as far back as 1996.

He is accused of three offences of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl aged under 13 years between July 16, 1996, and October 15, 1998, one of rape of a girl aged under 16 years between January 1, 1998, and January 1, 2000, and one of a sex act on a girl under the age of 14 years between July 16, 1996, and July 15, 1998.