The trial of a taxi driver charged with the rape of two young women in separate incidents in Dublin has continued today at the central criminal court.
The man, aged in his fifties, has pleaded not guilty to the rape of a woman in August 2022 and another in June 2022.
The court heard at the opening of the case last week how the women, now both 21, had been separately socialising in Dublin city centre after work and had met friends for drinks.
Each of the women later found themselves in the accused’s taxi after a night out and both allege that they were raped in the car.
The first young woman, who alleges she was raped in June 2022, told the court last week that she had been out with work colleagues when she became separated from them. She said she was raped in the back of the man’s taxi in the early hours of 26th June, 2022.
The second young woman said she had been going on a night out with friends in August of the same year, and had been planning to stay over at her friend’s house.
The accused, who has not been named for legal reasons, denies the charges, claiming that any sexual interaction that took place between him and each woman was consensual, and was initiated by them.
The jury heard on Tuesday that after picking up the second young woman in Dublin city centre, the accused stopped in a location in her hometown for around seven minutes in the early hours of 9 August 2022. CCTV footage then captured the driver getting into the back of the car, before returning to the front seat just over six minutes later.
The young woman was then 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.
Jurors also heard evidence that the driver was arrested on 22 August 2022. DNA taken from him matched male DNA taken from the young woman’s body. Once he was arrested, the accused was shown CCTV footage and a statement made by the young woman.
In a handwritten statement prepared for gardaí, the accused said he categorically denied the allegation of rape and that sexual contact had been consensual.
The young woman said she and her friends had left a Dublin nightclub at around 2.30am. However, she became separated from her friends when she went to get food and was then not allowed into the restaurant where the rest of the group had gone.
She then decided she would go home, as she was tired and “quite drunk” by this stage. She said she could not remember whether she hailed down the taxi or if it had stopped for her. She said that there was no conversation between herself and the driver, and that after getting into the back of the car, she fell asleep. She told the court that after falling asleep, she woke up to find the accused “on top” of her.
In the statement, the accused claimed the woman became quiet on the drive home, and he thought she had fallen asleep. He said that he drove around to increase the fare once he arrived in her hometown, and that he felt “ashamed and guilty” about that.
He said that when he pulled over and asked the young woman where she lived, she was awake and leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. He said he felt “flattered” that a younger woman showed interest in him, and he kissed her back.
The accused said he asked the young woman if she wanted him to get in the back and he said yes. He claimed they began having sexual intercourse, and that the woman was kissing him and smiling, and asked him if the journey was “off the bill.” He said he thought this was a joke, and replied “no, it’s not.”
He claimed that the sex lasted “for a few minutes,” after which he drove her home. The accused said that when he reached her home, the young woman went in to get a phone charger so that she could charge her phone and pay him. Her mother later came out and gave her money for the taxi, he said.
The accused told gardaí that he was “ashamed” for cheating on his wife, and that he had been unfaithful before. He said he should not have asked the young woman to pay the taxi fare but that he had “no reason to doubt she was a willing participant throughout” the sexual contact.
Appearing before the court, a witness from the Rotunda Hospital’s Sexual Assault Treatment Unit said that the woman had two areas of internal injury, but that it was not possible to differentiate between injuries sustained during consensual or non-consensual sex.
Last week, the first young woman in the case told the court that she had been on a night out with friends visiting several pubs on the night of the alleged incident two years ago.
She described herself as being “very drunk” and had consumed more alcohol than she was used to.
The second young woman said she had been out with friends and decided to go home after becoming tired and and feeling quite drunk. She told Geraldine Small SC, prosecuting, that she did not engage in conversation with the driver and fell asleep.
She claimed that the next thing she remembered was waking up with the driver 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 young woman told the trial she felt sore and “in shock”.
“I didn’t know how to react. I was awake at this stage. It woke me up, I remember turning my head so he wouldn’t kiss me,” she said.
She said she was in disbelief at what was happening, and “didn’t know how to fight back.”
She said that when the taxi driver finished, he told her to put her clothes back on. After the incident, which she said lasted around five minutes, was over, the driver dropped her home and asked her to pay the fare.
The woman said she was “falling in and out of consciousness,” and that she had no memory of the man sitting beside her removing his trousers and then hers.
“I didn’t instigate it, I didn’t give consent,” she said. When asked if it was fair to say she “didn’t remember how it started” by the defence, the woman replied: “No, I was asleep.”
The court also heard evidence from the second complainant’s mother, who last week told the trial that her daughter had returned home around 4am, and was surprised as she had indicated she would be staying overnight with friends.
She said her daughter was agitated and crying when she got back inside after paying the fare, and told her a few minutes later that the taxi driver had raped her.
“I hugged her, I didn’t know what to do,” the complainant’s mother said. She later said she asked her daughter what happened, but said “she didn’t say much”.
The trial continues at the Central Criminal Court.