Courts

Dublin taxi driver found guilty of raping two female passengers

Raymond Shorten (50) had pleaded not guilty to charges, claiming sex was consensual

Dublin taxi driver Raymond Shorten pleaded not guilty to raping the women. Photograph: Instagram

Eimear Dodd
Fri Jun 14 2024 - 12:09

A Dublin man has been convicted of the rape of two young women in the back of his taxi on separate nights two years ago.

Raymond Shorten (50) of Melrose Crescent, Clondalkin, Dublin 22 was found guilty of two counts of rape and one of anal rape by a jury at the Central Criminal Court on Friday.

Shorten had pleaded not guilty to the rape and anal rape of a 19-year-old woman on June 26th 2022 and to the rape of another woman, then aged 20, a couple of months later on August 9th 2022.

The prosecution’s case was that each woman found themselves in a taxi after a night out socialising in Dublin city centre where each was raped by the driver, Shorten.

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Shorten denied the allegations and said the sexual interactions between him and each of the women was consensual.

The jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts after a total of 76 minutes of deliberation. The members of the jury started their deliberations on Thursday afternoon.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott thanked the jury for their care and attention during the six days of the trial. He excused them from jury service for five years.

He remanded Shorten in custody to be sentenced on July 1st and ordered the preparation of victim impact statements.

[ The taxi driver convicted of rape: Accused’s account of events was ‘ludicrous’ and a ‘farce’, court hears ]

In her evidence, the first woman said she drank five pints of cider, an amount she was not used to, on the night of June 25th, 2022.

She described gaps in her memory of her journey home. She recalled waking up in the front passenger seat of a car in the early hours, with a man driving. She said the man moved her to the back seat where he raped her anally and vaginally. He then returned to the driver’s seat and dropped her near her home.

The second woman described going for drinks in Dublin city centre on August 8th, 2022. She was due to stay with a friend, but decided to get a taxi home as she was tired and drunk.

She fell asleep in the back of a taxi and said the next thing she remembered was waking up as the taxi driver was raping her. She said she was in shock and didn’t know how to fight back.

Shorten did not give evidence during the trial. Instead, two written statements he provided following his arrest on separate dates were read to the jury. He claimed the sexual activity with the women in his taxi was consensual and initiated by them.

Both women were examined at a sexual assault treatment unit, and Shorten’s DNA was identified on samples taken during forensic analysis.

The taxi was identified from CCTV. It was leased by Shorten, who was the only person insured to drive it.

In her closing speech, prosecuting counsel Gerardine Small suggested there was an “inherent unlikelihood” that two young women would make similar allegations about the same man within a relatively short period of time. She submitted that Shorten’s account was “ludicrous”.

Lorcan Staines SC, defending, told the jury they must put aside any sympathy to decide the case dispassionately. He told them if they accepted Shorten’s account was reasonably possible, they must give him the benefit of the doubt.

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