SNP suspends councillor who voted for rapist taxi driver to keep licence

The SNP group on Highland Council has suspended one of its councillors after he voted to allow a rapist taxi driver to keep his operator's licence.

Chris Birt was one of six male councillors who voted to take no action on David Brown's licence after the 50-year-old was jailed for an attack on an 18-year-old female passenger.

Raymond Bremner, SNP group leader at Highland Council, confirmed Birt was suspended on Tuesday.

Bremner had earlier suggested Birt should resign from Highland licensing committee after four other councillors quit.

Bremner told BBC Scotland News Birt's suspension was an internal matter and would be subject to the groups policies and procedures.

Birt has been approached for comment.

In a statement earlier this week, he said the committee was presented with a case involving a taxi driver convicted of a "very serious offence".

He said Brown's operator's licence had six months to run, after which it could be renewed in the name of another member of his family.

Birt did not comment on the call for him to resign from the committee.

Last month, following a request from Brown's family, the committee's six male councillors voted to allow his operator's licence to continue, while its four female councillors voted against it.

After criticism of the decision, the chairman Sean Kennedy along with John Grafton, Duncan Macpherson and Willie MacKay have resigned from the committee.

Independent councillor MacKay has also resigned as a councillor, while Grafton has been suspended by the Scottish Liberal Democrat group on Highland Council.

Kennedy, an Independent councillor, has resigned from the Highland Independents group on the local authority.

The sixth councillor, Scottish Conservative Ruraidh Stewart, has been approached for comment.

A Scottish Conservative spokesperson said: "We do not support the decision taken by the licensing committee.

"Whatever the extenuating circumstances behind it, this vote has caused understandable anger and it would be appropriate for it to be reviewed."

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

His separate operator's licence allows his vehicle to be used as a taxi business.

The committee's decision is to be reviewed by a meeting of the full council.

Highland licensing committee was asked to consider Brown's operator's licence just weeks after he was sentenced at the High Court in Stirling.

The court heard in December 2023, Brown picked up the 18-year-old who had been on a night out in Inverness and wanted to go back to her Highland village.

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

He then left her in sub-zero temperatures in Dingwall. A judge said the teenager had been forced to undergo a terrifying ordeal.

Brown, from Croy, near Inverness, had denied rape and claimed he had a consensual sexual encounter, but was found guilty by a jury after a three-day trial.