Raymond Shorten: Daughter of rapist taxi driver says: “This man means nothing to us”

Last week, Raymond Shorten (50), of Melrose Crescent, Clondalkin, West Dublin, was found guilty of rape and anal rape following incidents in which he attacked two women who ended up in his taxi in 2022.

Shorten had pleaded not guilty to the rape and anal rape of a 19-year-old woman on June 25, 2022, and the rape of another woman, then 20, several months later on August 9.

Now his daughter Nikita has described the devastating impact of her father’s actions.

In a public Facebook post for Father’s Day, she wrote: “Father’s Day and mourning a father we once had before we even knew what he was.

“I am so proud of my brothers and sisters who have been through the hardest thing we have ever had to go through; the news, the posts, the TikToks, everything we have to see and while behind closed doors we are going through even more.

“I am so happy for the girls that they got the justice they deserve. This has nothing to do with us and this man means nothing to us.

“I am grateful for the wonderful family I have and for the wonderful woman who raised us. Peace,” Nikita concluded.

Shorten is currently in custody awaiting sentencing after being convicted of two counts of rape last week.

Shorten denied the rape allegations and said he had consensual sexual contact with both women, initiated by them. When Shorten’s statement was read to them by his defence lawyer, both adamantly denied consenting to the sex.

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

She described gaps in her memory of her journey home. She remembered waking up in the early hours of the morning in the passenger seat of a car driven by a man.

She said she felt very dizzy and her eyes were heavy.

She said the man took her to the back seat where he raped her anally and vaginally. She said it was very painful and she kept passing out.

When he was finished, the man got back in the driver’s seat and dropped her off near her house.

In the years before and after the rape of two women in his taxi, Shorten regularly ranted on social media about safety issues in taxis, gays and refugees.

Despite his own future actions, Shorten used Facebook to warn the public about other taxi drivers on the city’s streets.

In 2016, after Gardaí posted a warning about a “bogus taxi” being stopped by DMR Traffic, he wrote: “Not properly regulated.

“No checkpoints and even we drivers have seen many scary taxis, but there is nothing we can do about it.”

In another story on January 18, 2021, about how the Gardaí tried to contact a taxi driver in the Killinarden area of ​​Tallaght, Shorten scoffed: “Jesus Christ, they’ve narrowed it down… there are hundreds of Toyota Prius taxis… why don’t they contact the Tallaght taxis… the cars are tracked with their journey history.”

In a June 2015 report that teachers “still fear being fired for being gay” in the Irish IndependentThe villain Shorten posted: “I won’t say anything if there are lesbians.”

He also commented on Al Porter after a story appeared in 2019 saying the comedian had gone without a trial after charges of sexually abusing a young man at a Dublin venue were dropped.

Shorten’s response was: “It’s about time… without a doubt… what a great guy. I’m so happy for him.”

Meanwhile, a woman who provoked Shorten into sex after he picked her up drunk warned that there were likely more victims.

The woman who appeared as a witness in the trial of the 50-year-old rapist was described in court as one of three women who had consensual sex with the perpetrator in his taxi.

However, at the weekend she told the Sunday World: “I wouldn’t have done that at all if I was sober. I don’t find him attractive – he’s twice my age.”

“Afterwards I was very ashamed and depressed that I had even agreed to it in that state.

“God knows who else he did this to.”

We disclose that sex offender Shorten was also convicted in connection with another sexual assault earlier this year, for which a sentence has not yet been determined.

For legal reasons, we cannot disclose any further details about this crime.

“I don’t want my name in the newspaper because I didn’t pursue my case,” the woman told the Sunday World this week.

“I gave my statement (to the Gardaí) two years ago and was called as a witness in the case of the other two women.”

When asked what happened in her case, she said: “I was thrown out of a nightclub. Then Raymond came towards me in a taxi.”

“My friends had my money and I wasn’t allowed to go back to the club to collect it.

“I told him I didn’t have any money for the taxi, but he said it was OK – he wouldn’t let a young girl walk home alone in that condition.

“It was 2021, I was 20 at the time. I was very, very drunk,” the woman recalls.

“I literally fell while walking down the street and couldn’t reach my family to call me a taxi. I was literally trapped.”

The woman said Shorten asked her if she would stay outside after he drove off.

“I spontaneously said ‘yes’,” she remembers. “Then we drove somewhere – to a small, dark place.”

“I didn’t really know where we were going. And he got in the back of the taxi.

“I think he asked me if I wanted to have sex and I said yes. But I wouldn’t have done it sober.”

“After that I felt very uncomfortable. And he texted me.

“After that he took me with him again and asked me again if I would stay outside.

“He wouldn’t let me pay him or anything, so I thought he wanted other things from me again.

“But I said no. Then I dismissed the whole thing and ignored him from then on.”

The woman said she heard Raymond Shorten’s name the next time the gardaí contacted her.

“I wouldn’t have done it at all if I was sober. I don’t find him attractive – he’s twice my age.”

“And when I was questioned by the Garda it was a huge strain on me – I had to give up my job for three months and go to counselling.

“And I couldn’t even go to counseling because my counselor was a man and I felt really uncomfortable around him.”

The woman said this month’s trial left her in fresh shock when she learned that Shorten had raped not one but two women.

She said she was called as a witness during the trial to confirm the statement she made to the Garda two years ago.

“I was in a terrible state in the courtroom,” she said.

“I just couldn’t stop crying. When he was found today, I was relieved.

“But I think I need to go back to counseling now because I’ve never talked about it. I’ve never told my family or anything.

“I thought he only did it to a girl because I tried not to read about it online.

“But when I saw two other girls in the courtroom, I had to go out and scream and cry while I spoke to the Garda outside.

“I couldn’t believe it… and then during the trial I found out that there were two other girls like me with whom he also had sex in the taxi.

“It’s just disgusting and I think there are probably other girls out there who have kept quiet about it.

“I’m glad now that I came forward and spoke to the police if it helped the other girls involved. He is 100% a sex offender and I hope he rots in his cell.

“It is a relief that he was found guilty because he denied it and said it was all consensual.

“It’s disgusting what he did. He was looking for a drunk girl that night…that’s how I feel now.”

Judge Paul McDermott remanded Shorten in custody until his sentencing on July 1 and ordered the preparation of victim statements.