Taxi Driver Online

Can't say I'm too happy with this kind of stuff. OK, the driver shouldn't have done what he did, but who knows what she did or said, or how intoxicated she seemed when she got into his cab? She might have seemed perfectly normal, and just propositioned him.

But she was 'too drunk' to remember what happened

Of course, not all the evidence will be contained in the piece below, but reading the article per se, it doesn't seem particularly compelling evidence for a criminal conviction and five year jail sentence


Taxi driver raped customer after picking her up outside Belfast nightclub

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sund ... 89768.html

An impotent taxi driver who raped a vulnerable young woman after picking her up outside a popular nightclub has been handed a 10-year sentence.

Michael Harte (58) preyed on his drunk victim outside a nightclub in Belfast city centre before taking her to a quiet nearby road and raping her.

The evil taxi driver, of Black Mountain Walk, west Belfast, tried to hide his number plate and lied to the victim about the firm he worked for in an attempt to evade justice but was jailed for the attack at Dungannon Crown Court earlier this month.

Judge Richard Greene KC branded him a liar who had deliberately gone looking for an intoxicated young woman to victimise.

“It would have been obvious to you that she was very vulnerable and you formed the intent to rape her shortly thereafter,’’ he said.

“She was at your mercy and you carefully planned where and how you were going to attack her, you parked up in a back street off the main road and committed this appalling sexual assault on her.

“I consider this a carefully planned sexual assault and it is clear the impact on the victim has been profound.”

The court heard how the victim returned home from her night out in October 2016 in “quite a distressed state” with friends immediately sensing something was wrong. She told her pals she had got into a taxi and was in it for a “long period of time” and thought something had happened but was “too drunk” to remember.

The victim later said in her police interview she remembered “being touched and felt someone on top of her”, adding: “I do feel like I’ve had sex”.

Harte denied raping her and insisted he had “reluctantly” given the victim a lift home, but this was rejected by the jury.

Lawyers for Harte told the court in mitigation their client is “unwell” and suffers from high cholesterol, high blood pressure, back pain, type 2 diabetes and asthma as well as erectile dysfunction. Incredibly, they also sought to play down his offending by insisting his erectile dysfunction would make him less likely to commit similar crimes in the future.

Referring to the victim personal statement, the judge said the victim may never recover from her ordeal and ordered Harte to spend five years behind bars followed by five on licence.

“She describes being consumed by her assault, which is a powerful indicator of the impact of your offending,” he said.

“You continue to deny your guilt and therefore lack remorse, you thought you could sexually assault her and she would not be able to recollect the events and hold you to account for your crime.

“It is obvious she will have significant difficulty getting over what you did to her and in reality she will never do.”

As well as his 10-year sentence, Harte was ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life and was slapped with a sexual offences prevention order for 10 years.

I wonder what the evidence was that he'd 'carefully planned it all'? Does that mean all drivers picking up intoxicated women outside pubs and nighclubs are intent on rape?

Nothing in the article to suggest there was any 'planning' beyond a normal night driver doing his job. Of course, no doubt he was an opportunist and shouldn't have done what he did but, I mean...

Here's another example of how these things can be framed to look a certain way using just the odd word or two.

This news source seems to have simply rehashed the above article (in fact, at the bottom it links to it as the source), but check out the highlighted word in the opening paragraph:


https://ukdaily.news/belfast/a-taxi-dri ... 65591.html


Funnily enough, the same new source has done a second rehash, but has dumped the word 'chased':


https://ukdaily.news/belfast/taxi-drive ... 65606.html

Although, to be fair, I'm not sure which of the two articles above came first. They're both dated 25 March, but no time stamp, or whatever.

So maybe the word 'chased' was removed because it was considered to have overegged things.

Or maybe the word 'chased' was added to spice things up.

No, but this particular one was and did.


Maybe he had purchased some viagra type pills to help out his willy problem. Maybe he had condoms on board.

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IDFIMH

Yes, and *maybe* he really did get out of his car and *chase* the woman and subsequently rape her.

But like the judge's claim that he 'carefully planned it all', can't really see anything in the article to support that. I mean, he might have just been doing what he's been doing for years, and to that extent what he did was more opportunist in nature.

And, for example, this kind of stuff perhaps gives people the impression that taxi drivers *don't* normally sit outside clubs picking up intoxicated women, when in fact that's actually what many normally do do

As you allude there is nothing in the article to suggest that, but the judge wouldn't have said that without good reason.

Maybe the driver had turned down non-pi**ed up ladies, or non-single-pi**ed up ladies. Maybe he hadn't taken any other work that night or not logged onto any data unit.

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IDFIMH

presumably the Judge has listened to loads of evidence before coming to that conclusion; whereas, the journo was more concerned about sensationalising the story than presenting the facts.

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

The fact that the judge mentioned it in summing indicates he used it in working out what sentence to pass. In other words it would have been an aggravating factor, leading to a higher sentence.

Thus if it played no part in the case, the sentence would be open to appeal by the rapist.

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IDFIMH