A woman who was raped by a Dublin taxi driver has told his sentence hearing she believed taxis were the 'safest option'.

She was one of two female passengers raped on separate dates over the summer of 2022 by 50-year-old Raymond Shorten, of Melrose Crescent in Clondalkin. 

He was found guilty of raping two female passengers in the back of his taxi.

Shorten claimed everything that happened with the two young women was consensual. 

In her victim impact statement, one of the women 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.

The young woman had not even hailed a taxi when Shorten picked her up in the early hours of June 4th, 2022. 

She 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. 

Told taxi was the 'safest option'

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 [Shorten] did to me”. 

The woman said two years of her 20s were taken from her and can't be replaced. 

She told the sentencing hearing that she suffers from anxiety and regularly has vivid nightmares. 

Both girls described being drunk after a night out and slipping in and out of sleep. 

Shorten, of Melrose Crescent in Clondalkin, Co Dublin, will be sentenced later this month. 

Reporting by Frank Greaney.