Taxi driver jailed for raping passenger
Monday, 8 February 2010 22:36
A Limerick taxi driver who raped a passenger has been jailed for seven years.
The judge said 43-year-old John Ryan of Clonard, Westbury, was guilty of a serious breach of trust when he assaulted the 19-year-old student.
Ryan was unanimously convicted by a jury last November of the rape and sexual assault of the passenger in October 2007.
His victim had been out drinking with friends and took a taxi home alone. She was driven to a secluded spot and was raped and sexually assaulted.
Gardaí traced Ryan through a receipt the victim grabbed from the car when he drove her home.
The 43-year-old, who is married with one child, had denied raping the young woman and said she had initiated the sex.
Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said it was a serious breach of the trust placed in Ryan as a taxi driver.
He said the victim and other young women should be able to take taxis with confidence in the early hours of the morning.
Intoxication made passengers even more vulnerable, he said, and PSV licence holders needed to be completely trustworthy.
Mr Justice McCarthy said he was taking into account the fact that John Ryan had lied to cover up his actions and his medical condition as an amputee.
