A Dublin taxi driver has been found guilty of the rape of two young female passengers, with the jury reaching a verdict after just 76 minutes of deliberation.
50-year-old Raymond Shorten, of Melrose Crescent in Clondalkin, Dublin 22, was convicted of two counts of rape and one of anal rape by a jury at the Central Criminal Court today.
Both rapes took place in the back of his taxi on separate nights two summers ago. The jury in the trial at the Central Criminal Court returned guilty verdicts on all counts, after starting their deliberations on Thursday afternoon.
Shorten, who had not previously been named, had denied raping the women – both now aged 21 – on 9th June 2022, and 9th August, claiming that the sex had been consensual.
However, prosecuting counsel Gerardine Small said his accounts of having consensual sex with each of the women was a “farce” and “ludicrous”.
The court had heard that both of the young women had found themselves in Shorten’s taxi after separate nights out in Dublin City Centre.
One of the victims had said that after being raped, she was dropped home in the north of the city and asked to pay the fare, the court heard. She told her mother she had been raped by the taxi driver.
She told the court last week that she had fallen asleep to wake up with Shorten on top of her, stating: “I came to the realisation he was having sex with me … I didn’t want him to kiss me, I turned my head to the side.”
The prosecution had described Shorten as “predatory” and said he had targeted vulnerable women who were drunk and attempting to make their way home.
Earlier in the week-long trial, the court heard defence evidence from three other women who said they had engaged in consensual sex with Shorten on other occasions in the back of his taxi.
Defence counsel Lorcan Staines told the jurors they were not there to decide on the man’s morals or whether his behaviour was appropriate but to decide on his guilt or innocence without emotion. All three women made statements to the gardaí after the taxi driver was arrested and all three described having sex with the man in his taxi, sometimes on more than one occasion.
In relation to the victims, Ms Small said it was unlikely that two young women who did not know each other would make similar accusations against the same man within a period of six or seven weeks of each other. She said that the 50-year-old had preyed on vulnerabilities, and that both girls were drunk and very sleepy.
He said he had sexual intercourse with them without their consent, knowing fully well what he was doing, she said, adding that the jury could be satisfied the prosecution had proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott thanked the jury for their care and attention over the course of the six day trial and excused them from jury service for five years.
In her closing speech, Ms Small told jurors that consent to a sexual act must be free and voluntarily given, and that someone who was asleep or unconscious could not give consent, and if they could not consent due to alcohol or drugs, that also made them incapable of consent.
Shorten was remanded in custody, and is to be sentenced on 1st July.