Irish taxi driver to serve 30 years for multiple rapes

A 50-year-old taxi driver who targeted vulnerable women on their way home at night has been sentenced to 17 years for raping two young women on separate nights in 2022.

Raymond Shorten, from Melrose Cresent, Clondalkin in Dublin, was sentenced earlier this week to 13 years in jail for raping and sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl in 2012.

A judge ruled the sentences should run consecutively, meaning Shorten will be jailed for 30 years in total.

Shorten had denied all the allegations against him, but was found guilty by juries in separate trials earlier this year.

'Utterly lacking in compassion'

In 2012, Shorten raped the seven-year-old girl in her grandmother's house on the day of her mother’s funeral.

He raped her on another occasion after that and also sexually assaulted her.

The judge in that case said the fact Shorten had raped the young child on the day of her mother’s funeral showed he was utterly lacking in compassion and did not care about the hurt, violation and long-term pain and suffering he had inflicted on her.

Shorten was working as a taxi driver in 2022, when he raped two young women on separate nights.

Both women were trying to get home and both were vulnerable because they had been drinking. The court heard he had preyed on their incapacity.

'Someone's worst nightmare'

Shorten had claimed the sexual activity had been consensual, but a jury found him guilty by unanimous verdict.

In a victim impact statement, one of the young women said she had done what every girl was told was safe - getting a taxi home - but it turned out to be "someone's worst nightmare".

She said she was constantly in fear that what happened to her that night would happen again.

The other young woman said what had happened to her was shocking and made worse by the fact that Shorten had raped another girl too.

The court heard Shorten has seven children. He had been a factory worker and a milkman before becoming a taxi driver.

His defence counsel said the convictions had resulted in the loss of his marriage and his relationships with his elderly parents and children.