Convicted rapist also found guilty of raping girl, 7

Raymond Shorten, the taxi driver who was convicted last month of raping two young women in his taxi on separate nights in 2022, has also been convicted of raping a seven-year-old girl 12 years ago.

Shorten, 50, and from Melrose Crescent in Clondalkin in Dublin, was around 38 years old when he raped the child twice and was also convicted of sexually assaulting her.

The first rape took place shortly after the child’s mother had died.

The second rape took place when she was also around seven or eight and the third incident involved a sexual assault in a car.

The incidents came to light when the girl left a handwritten note on her grandmother’s pillow in 2020, detailing what had happened.

Shorten denied the charges.

He told gardaí they were “110% a lie”.

He pleaded not guilty and gave evidence in his defence at the trial earlier this year, where he also denied the allegations and said they were total fabrications.

However a jury found him guilty on all three counts.

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In her victim impact statement, the young girl who is now 20 years old, said Shorten, who was known to her family, had always creeped her out.

She said she was severely taken advantage of.

She said she did not know what was going on when he abused her – one part knew it could not be right she said, but the other part thought it must be right – as why else would an adult man do that to a seven-year-old child.

It did not feel right and did not feel normal, she said.

Afterwards she said she began to experience strong outbursts of emotion and anger.

She said she was terrified of being left alone with male teachers. When she started attending sex education classes in school at the age of 14 or 15, she realised what had happened was not normal. She began using substances to cloak her pain, she said, and had tried to take her life on a number of occasions.

When the DPP decided to prosecute, she said she was relieved but also terrified.

However, when Shorten was found guilty she said she finally felt some closure and felt “this could actually have an end”.

She said her life had been impacted by the abuse in so many ways. She said Shorten should have protected her instead of abusing her.

Prosecuting counsel Gerardine Small said the DPP’s view was that the offending fell into the more serious category meriting a sentence of 10 to 15 years.

Defence counsel Lorcan Staines said Shorten did not accept responsibility for the offences.

He said he was a father of seven children and hoped to rebuild his relationship with them, but had lost his marriage and relationships because of his convictions.

Shorten will be sentenced for these offences on 19 July. He is then expected to be sentenced on 22 July, for the three rape charges relating to the two young women he attacked in his taxi in June and August 2022.