Taxi Driver Not Guilty of Rape - Birmingham Crown Court

Case study summary

Our client, a hard-working professional, was accused of the serious offence of rape by one of his customers. He came to us for help. We analysed the allegation against the evidence provided by the prosecution, finding the weaknesses and securing a not guilty verdict.

Case study

Our client was a taxi driver who had been working in the role for over a decade. He was accused of raping his passenger in the early hours of the morning. It was alleged that he had driven down a dark road after dropping off the complainant's friends, before climbing through the front seats and raping her.

He faced the prospect of going to prison for such a serious offence, as well as the loss of his livelihood and career. Our client was terrified and came to our specialist sexual offences lawyers for help.

The prosecution's case had clear gaps and relied heavily on timings between particular routes on our client's journey. In addition to this, the complainant's official account of the night differed significantly from what she first told police officers. She stated that there was a struggle in the back of the taxi and that she was screaming for help. Despite this, there were no injuries and, even more importantly, no DNA evidence. She also admitted that our client dropped her off at her house after the journey and failed to tell her parents what happened, simply saying that she was drunk and going to bed.

Our client adamantly denied the allegations and had complied throughout the investigation stage. He gave a complete account during his interview and provided his DNA on two separate occasions, the second of which was almost 3 years after his initial interview.

Our dedicated team ensured that we did everything possible to prepare our client's full defence, including instructing an expert to analyse his phone for GPS data from the route. We discovered that the data existed, despite the prosecution stating otherwise. Our hand-selected barrister was able to use the evidence that we had gathered to cast doubt on the case during the trial and our client was found not guilty by jury.

This case had weighed on him for over 4 years but our client was finally able to put this horrible ordeal behind him and return to his life.