Ex-fiancée of “monster” taxi driver Raymond Shorten claims he raped her multiple times

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

In this exclusive interview, Tracey Mates (44) and her daughter with the evil Shorten called him a “psychopath” and a “creep” – after he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2022 for raping two women in his taxi and a girl they knew (7) in 2012.

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

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“That’s how I deal with it. I basically tell myself that he died. Today, if someone asks me about my parents, I tell them that my father is dead,” she said. “He’s a monster, a psychopath.”

Meanwhile, her mother Tracey, who was with Shorten for eight years, has made allegations for the first time that he raped and abused her on several occasions.

“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 put up with, like you put up with a box. You don’t think he’s going to go ahead and do it to someone else.”

Tracey is currently wheelchair-bound and 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.

“I think I and a few 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 were in court last week to support a woman (20) who was raped by Shorten when she was just seven years old, said they personally know six 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 said.

“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. In his opinion it was quite normal. Some of them have said they would have done it if things hadn’t gone that way.

“I would have. 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.

“The reason I broke up with him wasn’t even because of me. One day I was getting a beating, went into the kitchen and put the laundry basket aside. There I saw that all my large kitchen knives were lying under it.

“My son Kyle had hidden it there because he thought he was going to kill me. So I said, ‘Okay, he’s gone because this affects my children.’ And I never went back there,” she said.

In 2020, Tracey was horrified to learn that the young girl she and Leah knew had been sexually abused by Shorten – the same day 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-adult woman left a note about the allegations on her grandmother’s pillow in 2020 – an incident that 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 says in retrospect that he was a “creep” who frequently asked her for sex from a young age.

“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 scary.

“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.

Heartbroken Leah says she tries to hold on to her good memories – even though her father led a sinister double life.

“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 them, so I know I’m actually grieving something.

“I have to separate two versions of him in my head – the version of the father I loved and knew and the version of him as 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,” she explained.

“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 spend at least another 21 years in prison – and have spoken to the woman who was just 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 experience 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 is so good, she looks after me and asks how I am”

Speaking about attending the trial herself, Leah revealed how her father, who was in the dock, booed and verbally abused her in the courtroom.

“He said it was all 110 percent wrong. When it was my turn, he said, ‘I don’t know why you’re doing this, I thought we had no problem with anyone.’

On Wednesday, the unrepentant Shorten (50) stood with a stony face as Judge Paul McDermott sentenced him to another 17 years in prison for the rape of two young women who ended up in his taxi in the summer of 2022.

The fact that Shorten was sentenced to 13 years in prison earlier this week for the rape of a seven-year-old child was a “serious aggravating circumstance”, said Judge McDermott. He knew this when he repeated his crime and raped two women “without scruples and without hesitation”.

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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