Rape sentence sends 'message of zero tolerance to perpetrators'

Raymond Shorten was given a 17-year sentence on Thursday for the rape of two women on dates in 2022.

A violent rapist has been sentenced to 30 years in prison, in a judgment activists said sends “a message of zero tolerance to perpetrators”.

Raymond Shorten, 52, of Melrose Crescent, Clondalkin, Dublin 22, was given a 17-year sentence on Thursday for the rape of two women on dates in 2022.

Shorten had been working as a taxi driver and his victims were passengers on their way home from nights out in Dublin city.

He was separately convicted at the Central Criminal Court in May of two counts of rape and one of sexual assault of a seven-year-old girl in 2012. Earlier this week, Shorten was sentenced to 13 years for these crimes.

At the Central Criminal Court on Thursday, Mr Justice Paul McDermott ordered that the sentences should run consecutively.

In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice McDermott said this case was about violence against women in society and the steps they must take to avoid or minimise this risk.

He said the case reflects the “unhappy reality” that women “too often become the subject of sexual or other forms of physical violence, or the threat of it, when they go out to simply enjoy themselves”.

The judge said this indicates “an underlying unhealthy attitude towards women and their fundamental rights in any society, if their sense of freedom and security in doing normal things is so compromised”.

He said it was a “poor reflection on the level of security and safety of women” who go for a night out that the best advice to get home safely and “without fear of violent attack by a male, or without unwanted attention” is not to get a bus or walk home alone, which they should be able to do.

Reacting to the sentence, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre chief executive Rachel Morrogh said she was very thankful for the consecutive sentences issued by the judge and hoped this trend of substantial sentences for sexual crimes continued.

“The total jail term of 30 years is effectively equivalent to a life sentence,” she said.

“It is another significant sentence given by the courts in recent weeks to perpetrators of sexual offences and should give great hope to people going through the justice system that this most heinous crime will be punished by lengthy imprisonment.

“We send wishes of healing and strength to the three young women who were attacked by Shorten and we thank them for speaking out.”

Meanwhile,  Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has said that Raymond Shorten could have assaulted other women - and appealed to them to come forward.

“There is a reasonable proposition that there are other victims out there,” the Commissioner said, hours after the 50-year-old taxi driver was jailed for 30 years.

Speaking at a public meeting of the Policing Authority in Dublin, Mr Harris urged any other victims to come forward: "I would make an appeal to them to come forward and make complaints to An Garda Siochana."

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