Rapist taxi driver Raymond Shorten silent as he's jailed for a total of 30 years
The sentences today will be served consecutively to the 13 years Shorten was handed down earlier this week for the rape of a seven year old child
Evil taxi driver rapist Raymond Shorten has been jailed to a total of 30 YEARS in prison for the rape of two women - and a child.
Today Father-of-seven Shorten (50), of Melrose Crescent, Clondalkin, Dublin 22, was sentenced to a total of 17 years in prison for the rape a then 19 year old woman in June 2022 and another 20 year old woman on August 9 of that year.
The sentences today will be served consecutively to the 13 years Shorten was handed down earlier this week for the rape of a seven year old child. Dressed in a white shirt with a navy spotted tie and wearing glasses, Shorten kept his head down and remained silent throughout the sentencing.
READ MORE: Daughter of rapist taxi driver says she hopes he 'gets what he deserves'
One of the victims, who was in court, became tearful and hugged family members when the verdict was read out. Passing sentence today, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said he must consider that Shorten had just been sentenced for raping a child 10 years prior to these offences - and called it a “serious aggravating factor."
He said that this man “already raped a child and years later set about committing these offences. He knew exactly what he was doing. He appeared to do it with impunity,” the Judge said.
Mr Justice McDermott said these were cases of “violence against women” and commented on what he said was an “unhappy reality” where all too often women go out simply to enjoy themselves, but that there is an “unhealthy attitude” to women in our society, and the best advice given is to get home safely “without fear of violence.”
He said the option available is for women to take a taxi, and this reflects on the level of trust there is in society for the taxi service. He said there are many stories of the “great kindness” of taxi drivers - and said Shorten’s offending is a “gross betrayal” of that “high standard of service and professionalism.”
Judge McDermott said that “breach of trust” was clearly an aggravating factor in this case. He said it was “significant” that Shorten went on to commit these rape offences “on two separate women on two separate occasions, who he didn’t know.
He said therefore it “justifies the imposition of the sentence to be proportionally more severe.” He said Shorten committed the offences knowing he had committed the rape of a child, and he “went about identifying two further victims, repeating his offence, without compunction, and without hesitation.
He did so with a “complete absence of remorse,” the Judge said, adding that the nature of his prior offending shows that he “was and is a danger to others.” He said that this case involved an “absolute breach of trust,” in that the victims trusted Shorten to “get them safely home because of his job as a taxi driver.”
The Judge said the victims are entitled to regard a taxi as a place of safety and security - but that Shorten “effectively preyed on them.” He said that Shorten “doesn’t acknowledge his guilt,” and has “no remorse,” is “completely unrepentant in respect of the damage he inflicted to these two women.”
He set the sentences for rape and anal rape at 12 years, and rape of the second victim at 11 years. Judge McDermott said he was satisfied that the first sentence for rape only come into effect after the expiration of Shorten’s 13 year sentence for rape of a child.
The second sentence for rape is to take affect from today’s date - with the court hearing that taken together, it would mean an overall 36 years in prison. Judge McDermott said he was taking into account the totality principle and reduced two of the sentences to nine years and 8 years.
Those sentences are not to be served until after Shorten concludes his sentence for the rape of a child. The court heard that this means he will serve a total of 30 years in prison for all three offences.
In her opening speech of the trial in this case, senior prosecuting counsel Gerardine Small said each woman found themselves in a taxi after a night out socialising in Dublin city centre in the summer of 2022, where they were raped in the vehicle by Shorten.
In her evidence, the first woman said she drank five pints of cider, an amount she wasn’t used to, on the night of June 25, 2022. She described gaps in her memory of her journey home and recalled waking up in the front passenger seat of a car in the early hours, with a man driving.
She said she felt very dazed and her eyes were heavy. She said the man moved her to the back seat where he raped her anally and vaginally. When he finished, the man returned to the driver’s seat, then dropped her near her home.
Under cross-examination, she accepted there were issues with her memory of that night but strongly rejected the defence’s contention that she was an active participant in consensual sexual activity with Shorten.
The second woman described going for drinks in Dublin city centre on August 8, 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.
Afterwards, he dropped her home where he asked for the fare. She got a charger from the house as her phone had died and went back to the taxi to charge it. One of her parents later paid the fare in cash.
During her testimony, the woman became upset as she recounted returning to her house where her parents asked her questions. She said she broke down crying and told them what had happened. Under cross-examination, she rejected the defence’s contention that there was mutual kissing, then consensual sexual activity.
Her mother said she was surprised when her daughter arrived home that night. She said her daughter was agitated and crying after the taxi left and she noticed the zip on her jeans was down. Her daughter told her a few minutes later that the taxi driver had raped her. The woman’s mother became visibly emotional during her testimony while she recalled replying “as in him?”
She said she was shocked and thought she was going to get sick Shorten didn’t 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.
In her closing speech, Ms Small suggested there is 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” and a “farce”.
The sentence comes after Shorten was already jailed earlier this week to 13 years in prison for the rape and sexual abuse of a seven year old child over a decade ago. In that case the trial heard how Shorten raped the victim for the first time in the wake of her mother’s funeral - when she would have been “extremely vulnerable.”
The incidents emerged when the young girl left a handwritten note on her grandmother’s pillow in 2020, the court heard, telling her what happened. A jury ultimately convicted Shorten, who claimed to gardai that the charges were “110 per cent a lie.”
Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo said Shorten “couldn’t have cared less” about the suffering and long term pain of the child - and said he showed a lack of any compassion for them. In a victim impact statement read to the court the victim, who is now an adult, said she was “severely taken advantage of” by Shorten - who she said “always creeped me out.”
She said it was only when she started sex education in school at the age of 14 that she realised what Shorten did to her was wrong.
If you have been affected by the contents of this article, you can contact the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre on their 24-hour helpline on 1800 77 8888 or visit drcc.ie.
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