A Dublin taxi driver who caused “deep and abiding damage” to a girl by raping her twice when she was seven or eight has been jailed for a total term of 13 years.
Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo said the fact Raymond Shorten first raped the girl days after her mother’s death showed he was “utterly lacking” in compassion and “could not care less” about the hurt, violation and long-term impact of his actions on her.
Shorten (50), from Melrose Crescent, Dublin 22, faces further sentences by another judge on Thursday for raping two young women in his taxi on separate dates in summer 2022.
Geraldine Small SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), had submitted that headline sentences of 10 to 15 years were appropriate in relation to all three victims.
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At the Central Criminal Court on Monday, Mr Justice Naidoo imposed an effective 13 year sentence on Shorten following his conviction in May of two counts of vaginal rape and one count of sexual assault of the child on dates more than 10 years ago. The sentence was backdated to August 2022 because Shorten has been in custody since then.
As the now 20-year-old woman listened, the judge said Shorten committed “very serious” offences involving a vulnerable child. The offending involved a breach of trust by Shorten, who was aged 37 or 38 at the time, and known to the girl’s family.
The fact there was more than one offence and they were committed in places where the child should have felt safe was another aggravating factor, the judge said, adding that there was “overall, very little mitigation”.
He decided the offences were in the upper end of the relevant category and 14 years was the appropriate headline sentence for the rapes and four years for the sexual assault. He reduced the headline terms by one year, making an effective 13 year sentence.
Shorten’s other rape convictions from last month postdated his May conviction for the offences against the child and were not a factor in this sentencing decision, the judge said. It was for his colleague Mr Justice Paul McDermott to decide whether to consider rehabilitation and post-release supervision matters when determining the other sentences, he said.
In relation to the girl, the first rape occurred in the child’s home more than 10 years ago, just days after her mother’s death. Shorten laid her down on a bathroom floor and raped her. The second rape happened in the bedroom of a family member when the girl found herself alone with Shorten. A third offence, of sexual assault, occurred in his vehicle.
A Garda investigation began in 2021 after the girl in late 2020 left a handwritten note on her grandmother’s pillow about what Shorten had done. When charged, he denied the allegations.
In a victim impact statement, the woman said her mother died when she was seven and Shorten’s abuse of her started right after that. She said she never really liked Shorten and he always “creeped me out”. The abuse had a serious impact on her in many ways, she said.
Following the rapes, she experienced strong emotional outbursts such as screaming, shouting, hitting walls.
“I just wanted to get my anger out,” she said.
The woman said she later used substances to escape the pain, began self-harming, experienced panic attacks, had suicidal thoughts and made some attempts to take her own life. As a result of sex education classes as a teenager, she learned of the enormity of the impact of the abuse on her.
She had been protected by her grandmother but should also have been protected by Shorten. “He should not have abused me.”
Lorcan Staines, counsel for Shorten, said his client is a father of seven who had worked all his life and had lost his marriage and relationship. He said Shorten does not accept responsibility for the offences of which he was convicted.
Shorten was separately found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court last month of the rape and anal rape of a 19-year-old woman on June 26th, 2022, and of the rape of a second woman, then aged 20, on August 9th, 2022. He denied the charges.
The prosecution case was that each woman found themselves in a taxi after a night out socialising in Dublin city centre where they were raped by the driver, Shorten.
In a victim impact statement, the 20-year-old woman said she got a taxi home “to be safe” but experienced a “nightmare” and continues to suffer anxiety and trust issues. The second woman said she was 19-year-old and still a virgin when raped by Shorten.
“I still don’t know what to say: it’s shocking that this even happened in the first place, that a predator like this didn’t just get me but he raped another.”
The DPP submitted to Mr Justice McDermott that a headline sentence of 10-15 years was appropriate in each of the two cases.
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