Allowing rapist taxi driver to keep operator licence is 'harmful message'

A taxi driver who raped a teenage female passenger should not be allowed to keep his operator's licence, a rape charity has said.

David Brown, 50, of Croy, near Inverness, was sentenced to six years and nine months in May following his attack on the 18-year-old in December 2023.

Rape and Sexual Abuse Service Highland said allowing a convicted rapist to hold a licence in that same industry was a "harmful message" to women.

Highland Council's licensing committee voted in private last week to allow a taxi operator's licence to continue in his name, despite objections from Police Scotland.

Highland Council said the licensing committee's decision would be referred to a future meeting of full council for further consideration.

Rape and Sexual Abuse Service Highland chief executive, Romy Rehfeld, said: "Our first thoughts are with the victim and her family.

"Decisions like this can cause real additional distress to survivors and risks forcing them to relive their trauma.

"A convicted rapist who used his professional position to attack a young woman should not be permitted to hold a licence in that same industry."

She said it was "troubling" the decision was made in private.

Rehfeld added: "Women and girls in the Highlands deserve to know why Police Scotland's objection was set aside."

Nicola Love, external affairs manager for Rape Crisis Scotland, said people were "very rightly concerned".

She said: "We don't think that it is in anyway appropriate for someone who was not only convicted of a sexual offence, but somebody who was convicted of a sexual offence using the guise of his taxi, to be allowed to operate a taxi."

Highlands and Islands SNP MSP Maree Todd described the committee's decision as "incomprehensible".

She added: "I'm struggling to understand what they were thinking of when they were making that decision."

Brown picked up the 18-year-old woman who had been on a night out in Inverness and wanted to go back to her Highland village.

Instead he drove past her destination before pulling into a lay-by near a farm, somewhere between Strathpeffer and Dingwall, and sexually assaulting her.

He then left her in Dingwall in sub-zero temperatures.

Brown had denied the charge of rape and claimed he had a consensual sexual encounter, but was found guilty after a three-day trial in Edinburgh in April.

Brown's taxi driver's licence - which allows him to drive a taxi - was suspended in January 2024 after details of his offences emerged.

His separate taxi operator's licence - which authorises him to run the business - went before Highland licencing committee for review on 23 June.

An operator's licence is not transferable and can be granted for up to three years.

BBC Scotland News understands that a member of Brown's family requested that it be allowed to continue.

The council committee voted to take no action. Other options were to suspend or revoke the licence.

Rules under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 mean councillors are not allowed to comment publicly on matters dealt with in private.

But John Grafton, a Scottish Liberal Democrat councillor and one of the committee members, told BBC Scotland News he made his decision based on what was presented to the committee.

He said he recognised it had "stirred up" concerns around the issue of women's safety.

Grafton said councillors were restricted on what they could say on the decision because the matter was sub judice, and it was also to go before the full council.

"I don't want to prejudice that," he said, adding that he would answer people's questions when he was allowed to do so.