Elisa Menendez
A TAXI driver has been sentenced to seven years in prison after raping a British tourist on the Costa del Sol.
The incident occurred at around 3.23am on June 21 2014, having picked up the client at the bus stop in Plaza Solymar in Benalmadena.
After realising the victim was drunk, the 35-year-old man veered away from the route to her hotel and took her to Parque Olivar in Torremolinos.
There he stopped the car, got into the backseat raped the British woman.
She tried to push him off but he grabbed her arms ‘in order to undermine her sexual freedom’, revealed court documents from the Malaga Provincial Court, reported Diario Sur.
Following the attack he dropped her at the hotel where she was staying, Hotel Bali, where the receptionist helped the woman and called the police.
The judge concluded that the defendant’s version of events were not credible.
The victim gave evidence in court through a video conference, assisted by a translator, and explained how she had taken a taxi thinking it was safer than walking home alone, having had a ‘few drinks with friends’.
She described how he pinned her down and raped her after parking in the urbanisation, despite her attempts to push him away.
However, the defendant claimed the intercourse was consensual and said ‘when we finished she wanted more’ and asked him to come to her hotel room.
He alleged that she called the police ‘in spite’ because he did not want to go to her room.
The injuries the victim sustained were found to be ‘compatible with this type of aggression’ and concluded the incident was not consensual.
The taxi driver was sentenced to seven years and fined €6,000 for the ‘moral damages’ imposed on the victim. A second fine is yet to be confirmed for the injuries she sustained.
