A woman who was raped by a Dublin taxi driver has told his sentence hearing she believed taxis were the 'safest option'., of Melrose Crescent in Clondalkin.Shorten claimed everything that happened with the two young women was consensual.said the incident had “messed with her intimate life” and she still feels uncomfortable in taxis.
“A lot of men in a room is enough to panic me,” she told the court, noting he was a virgin before she got into his taxi.thShe said she lost the ability to “feel carefree and safe in the streets” and suffers from flashbacks. She said it was also shocking that a “predator” like the taxi driver didn’t just attack her, but also raped another.The second woman, who was raped two months later, said she had always been told a taxi was the “safest option” when getting home at night - but instead found herself in every girl’s “worst nightmare.”
She said despite trying to socialise in the years after being attacked in the taxi, her “nights out usually end in tears because of what did to me”.She told the sentencing hearing that she suffers from anxiety and regularly has vivid nightmares.Shorten, of Melrose Crescent in Clondalkin, Co Dublin, will be sentenced later this month.