Raymond Shorten’s ex-fiancée claims a “monster” raped her multiple times

An ex-fiancée of evil taxi driver Raymond Shorten has claimed that the “monster” raped her several times – and that she knows of six other victims.

In an exclusive interview with this newspaper, 44-year-old Tracey Mates and their daughter Shorten described him as a “psychopath” and a “creep” – after he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2022 for raping two women and a seven-year-old girl they knew in his taxi in 2012.

Shorten’s daughter Leah, 19, fought back tears and told us she was mourning the father she once thought she had.

“That’s how I deal with it. Basically, I tell myself that he died. Now, if someone asks me about my parents, I tell them that my father died.

“He is a monster, a psychopath.”

Meanwhile, her mother Tracey, who was with Shorten for eight years, revealed for the first time that she claims he raped and abused her.

“He did it (the rape) to me multiple times over the course of eight years,” Tracey said.

“He did it to me, but when you’re in a relationship you don’t consider it rape.

“You just think it’s normal and something you accept.

“You don’t think he would do that to anyone else.”

Tracey is currently wheelchair-bound and has suffered a spinal cord injury which she believes was caused by the abusive Shorten. She says she and other women have considered coming forward to the Gardai.

She added: “I think I and some other people would have come forward if he had received a lenient sentence.

“I am a victim, but I am also a survivor, and I want him to know that he didn’t break me as much as he tried.”

Both Tracey and Leah, who appeared in court last week to support a 20-year-old woman who was raped by Shorten when she was just seven, said they personally know other women who say they were abused by him.

“We know of about six people. One of them keeps texting me to see how she’s doing, and I know he did something to her,” Leah told us.

“Probably three of them would have gone to the Gardai, but so far they have not done so.”

Tracey said: “We know there are a lot of victims. For him, it was just normal. A few of them have said if it hadn’t happened that way, they would have done it. I would have done it. But he’s put me through enough already. I think I got some justice this week. He’ll be there for me for 20 years.”

“He will die there,” Leah added.

Tracey told us that Shorten kept disappearing throughout their relationship because she suspected he was having “affairs,” and that she finally decided to leave him in 2012 when she began to fear for the safety of her children.

She added: “The reason I broke up with him wasn’t even because of me. One day I got a beating and I went into the kitchen, put the laundry basket aside and saw all my large kitchen knives under it. My son Kyle had hidden them there because he thought he was going to kill me. That’s when I said, OK, he’s gone because this affects my children. And I never went back there.”

In 2020, Tracey was horrified to learn that the young girl she and Leah knew had been sexually abused by Shorten, on the same day that she had previously called the Gardai about an alleged assault.

“I had him arrested for the assault. He had been given a warning. The assault happened on the day of one of the rapes. He did it that same night,” she said.

Tracey and Leah learned of the child’s rape when the now-grown woman left a note about the allegations on her grandmother’s pillow in 2020. That incident sparked the major investigation into Shorten and ultimately led to him being sentenced to 13 years in prison this week. Leah says she cut off contact with her father in 2020 and in hindsight he was a “creep” who frequently asked her for sex from a young age.

She added: “I always called my dad when I needed a ride home from Bray or something because I trusted him back then.

“When I called him, I was with friends and offered them a ride, but they never accepted and said he was creepy. He always talked openly about sex. He told me about the bees and flowers at KFC. He made jokes.

“I was about 13 at the time. He made sure I didn’t have a boyfriend and called me gay.”

“Sometimes she was a little disturbed when she came back,” Tracey added.

Speaking today, a heartbroken Leah says she is trying to hold on to her good memories despite her father leading a sinister double life.

She added: “I don’t want to tarnish my memories of him because they were good memories.

“He was my father and I want to hold on to him so I know that I am actually grieving for something. I have to separate two versions of him in my mind: the version of the father I loved and knew and the version he really is.

“It’s like he was living a double life. I was blind to it because my mother protected me from all of that.

“So I saw him through rose-colored glasses.

“For me it’s different because he was my father. It’s like a death because he was just ripped out of my life.”

The devastated mother and daughter say they are delighted Shorten will serve his minimum 21-year prison sentence and have spoken to the woman who was a child when he raped her on the day of her mother’s funeral.

When the young woman was raped by Shorten as a child in 2012, Leah had to testify during his trial.

“She was with me yesterday. And she texted me saying she saw the news about the verdict,” Leah told us.

“It was one of the hardest days of her life and she wished her parents were there to witness it. Her father actually died a few weeks before the first court date. So she had to do everything right after her father died. But she’s so good, she checks in on me and asks how I’m doing.”

If you have been affected by the content of this article, you can contact the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre via the 24-hour helpline on 1800 77 8888 or visit the website drcc.ie.

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