A taxi driver who was allowed to keep his operator’s licence despite being jailed for raping a teenage passenger is to appeal against his conviction.
David Brown, 50, from Croy, near Inverness, raped the 18-year-old female in a layby in December 2023 after picking her up after a night out in Inverness.
He then dumped her in Dingwall on a freezing cold night.
He was found guilty by a jury after a three-day trial in Edinburgh in April. He was jailed for six years and nine months.
He had his taxi driver’s licence suspended in January 2024 after details of his crime emerged.
But last month, a Highland Council committee voted to allow a taxi operator’s licence in his name to continue.
His wife had argued at a licensing meeting that she needed the vehicle licence to continue to earn a living.
Police had objected to the licence being continued.
But six male councillors voted for him to keep it. Since then, four of them have resigned from the committee, and a fifth was suspended by his party.
The full council will review the decision at a meeting on August 4.
Almost 6,000 people have signed an online petition demanding the council revokes Brown’s taxi operator’s licence.
The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service has confirmed an intention to appeal his conviction and sentencing has been lodged. The formal Note of Appeal is due to be submitted on Tuesday, July 21.
‘Terrifying ordeal’
Central Scotland News AgencyOn December 3, 2023, David Brown, 50, picked up the 18-year-old girl who had been on a night out in Inverness.
She wanted to go back to her Highland village. In pre-recorded evidence, she said that Brown had agreed to run her home despite her not having enough to pay the fare.
“He said that’s fine and that he would give me a lift anyway,” she said.
But during the journey, Brown did not go the way she needed to and headed for the Ross-shire countryside.
Brown drove past her destination and pulled into a lay-by near a farm, somewhere between Strathpeffer and Dingwall.
Brown’s journey was recovered from his car’s tracker system.
At the High Court, Judge Lord Renucci said: “It was in that lay-by that you then raped her. She was only 18. You were significantly older, being at the time 47.
“This must have been a terrifying ordeal for your victim, who was undoubtedly in a vulnerable condition due to her inebriation, which you took advantage of for your own sexual gratification.
“After you had finished, you drove her back into Dingwall.
“There, in effect, you dumped her out of your taxi in the very early hours of the morning.”
Lord Renucci said “thankfully” a member of staff at the town’s Tesco “saw her, took pity on her, and opened up the store to let her in out of the cold”.
Brown was placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.
Brown denied the charge of rape, claiming he had a consensual sexual encounter, instigated by the victim.
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