Taxi driver allegedly raped two passengers – woman denies that the contact was consensual

A young woman who claims she was raped in a car by a taxi driver has rejected her defense lawyer’s claim that the sexual activity was consensual.

The man, in his early fifties, has pleaded (NOT) guilty to the rape and anal rape of this woman. He also denies a charge of raping another woman.

The defendant, whose name cannot be disclosed for legal reasons, denies the allegations and says that all sexual contact between him and the two women was consensual.

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The first plaintiff told prosecutor Gerardine Small SC on Wednesday that she had finished work at around 10pm on 25 June 2022 and, after seeing some colleagues in a bar, had joined them.

She drank about five pints of cider over the course of the evening and agreed with her lawyer that she was not used to drinking so much.

She said she left the bar with two colleagues after the last order, but they got separated on the way because the city was very busy.

When asked by Ms Small, the woman said that from that point on she “had almost no memory of the trip” except that she went to a restaurant and, in her opinion, slipped on a staircase.

The woman said her next memory was “waking up in this car” sitting in the passenger seat. She didn’t know what time it was and remembered seeing an ID in the car.

She said a man drove the car “very slowly for a short period of time before he stopped.”

She said she did not speak to the man and was “very dizzy.” She described the feeling as “like your eyes were really heavy and every time you close them you lose consciousness for a second.”

She said the man climbed on top of her when the car stopped and pulled down her pants, then “threw” her into the back seat after lifting her up as if she “weighed nothing.”

She said the man went on top of her and raped her anally. She said she was surprised because it was “very sudden” and “painful.” She said she was still in and out of consciousness at the time.

She said the man then raped her. When he was finished, he ripped her clothes off. She said the man then got back into the driver’s seat.

She told Ms Small that she had not consented to any sexual contact with the man and had not touched him.

She said the man dropped her off at a place she didn’t recognize. Then she got back in the car and they drove a little further before he dropped her off at a place she did recognize. She described two “micro-conversations” with the man in which he asked her where he should take her and she asked him where her bag was. She said she asked the man his name, but he didn’t tell her and replied that she would see him soon.

She said she later found her bag on the steps in front of her house.

She went home and got into bed as she had to work the next day. She said she felt “terrible” when she woke up, sore and mentally “drained”. She said she was given the morning after pill on the way to work.

In her statement, the woman stated that later that same day she told a co-worker and a friend individually about the rape.

During cross-examination, the woman admitted that she probably got into the taxi voluntarily, but said she could not remember it.

Lead defence counsel Lorcan Staines SC explained that his instructions were that the woman told the man to drive the taxi while she looked for her bag. His instructions were that she and his client were chatting and getting on. She said she had no recollection of that.

Mr Staines said she was laughing and happy as she spoke to the man and the woman said it was possible but she could not remember.

The defense attorney explained to the woman that there had first been kissing and then consensual sexual acts and mutual touching in which she had played an active role, which she had, however, denied.

He explained to her that his client had instructed her not to have anal sex.

Mr Staines stated that his client had not used violence and that both parties had been sexually active. “No, I had no energy. I was unconscious the whole time,” she replied.

He later argued with his client’s statement that he had neither “thrown her nor used physical force,” which she also rejected.

In other evidence, the woman’s friend said she told her she had been raped. The witness said her friend told her she “woke up under a man in a car” and did not know who he was.

One of the woman’s colleagues said he was at the bar with mutual friends and the woman, who he thought was a little drunk. He said a mutual friend went to put the woman in a taxi but came back and said they had lost her beforehand.

He said he saw the woman at work the next day. She told him she had a headache because she had been out the night before and that she had to take the morning-after pill because “she had been raped in a car the night before.”

He said he told her to go home as soon as possible afterward.

Earlier, Ms Small told the jury in her opening statement on Wednesday that the second woman was with friends in Dublin on August 9, 2022. She had been drinking but was also very tired because she had gotten up early for work.

She said the woman was riding in the taxi and kept falling asleep, but when she finally woke up, the man was on top of her and allegedly raped her. The woman was in shock and felt unable to defend herself.

She was taken to her parents’ house where the man asked for the fare her parents paid. The woman told her parents what had happened and the Gardaí were contacted.

Ms Small told the jury that the defendant told police that all sexual encounters between him and the woman were consensual and initiated by the plaintiff.

The process continues.

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