Taxi driver goes on trial charged with rape of two women in separate incidents in Dublin

A taxi driver has gone on trial charged with the rape of two young women in separate incidents in Dublin two years ago.

The man, who is in his fifties, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape in relation to the two complainants.

Opening the case for the State on Wednesday, prosecuting senior counsel Gerardine Small said each woman had been separately socialising in Dublin city centre after work and had met friends for drinks.

Each woman later found themselves in a taxi after a night out and they each allege they were raped in the car.

The first incident allegedly took place in June 2022, while the second occurred in August. The women are not acquaintances or known to each other, the court was told.

The accused man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies the allegations. When interviewed by gardaí, he told them in a prepared statement that any sexual encounter between him and the women was initiated by each woman and was consensual.

Ms Small told the jury that while the allegations are dealt with in the same trial, each is “separate and distinct” and they must consider each allegation individually.

The first complainant told Ms Small she finished work on June 25, 2022 around 10pm and after spotting some co-workers at a bar, she joined them.

She drank around five pints of cider during the night and agreed with counsel she wasn’t used to drinking that amount. She said she left the bar after final orders with two co-workers, but they got separated while walking as the city was very busy.

When asked by Ms Small, the woman said her memory “almost doesn’t exist” of her journey after this point, except that she went to a restaurant where she believed she slipped on some stairs.

The woman said her next memory was “waking up in that car” and she found herself sitting in the front passenger seat. She didn’t know what time it was and recalled seeing an ID card in the car.

She said there was a man driving the car very slowly “for a little while, until he stopped”.

She said she didn’t speak to the man and was “very dazed”. She described feeling “like when your eyes are 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 trousers. He then “tossed” her in the back seat, after picking her up like she “weighed nothing”.

She said the man got on top of her and raped her.

She told Ms Small that she didn’t consent to any sexual interaction with the man and didn’t touch him.

She said the man dropped her off at a place she didn’t recognise, then she got back into the car and they drove a little more before he left her at a location she was familiar with.

She went home to bed and felt “awful” when she woke, sore and “drained” mentally. She said she got the morning-after pill on her way to work.

Later that day she separately told a work colleague and a friend she had been raped.

Under cross-examination, the woman accepted she probably got into the taxi voluntarily, but said she has no memory of this.

Defence senior counsel Lorcan Staines SC outlined his instructions are that the woman told the man to drive the taxi as she was looking for her bag. His instructions are that she and his client were chatting and getting on. She said she didn’t remember this.

Mr Staines suggested she was laughing and happy while chatting with the man, and the woman said it was possible, but she didn’t remember.

Defence counsel put it to the woman that there was kissing, then consensual sexual activity and mutual touching in which she played an active role, which she rejected.

In other evidence, the woman’s friend said she told her she was raped. The witness said her friend told her she “woke up underneath a man in a car,” and didn’t know who he was.

Earlier Ms Small told the jury in her opening speech that the second woman was socialising with friends in Dublin on August 9, 2022. She had been drinking, but was also very tired after getting up early for work.

She said the woman took a taxi and was falling in and out of sleep, but ultimately she woke to find the man on top of her, allegedly raping her. The woman was in shock and didn’t feel in a position to fight back.

She was taken to her parents’ home where the man asked for the fare, which was paid by her parents. The woman told her parents what had happened and gardaí were contacted.

Ms Small told the jury that the accused man told gardaí that any sexual encounter between him and this woman was consensual and initiated by the complainant.

The trial continues at the Central Criminal Court before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and the jury.