Rapist taxi driver gives up operators licence ahead of Highland Council review
David Brown is said to have “handed in” licence and plates today, ahead of the review
A rapist taxi driver has surrendered the operators licence he had been allowed to keep after raping a young female passenger.
David Brown, 50, was jailed for six years and nine months in May after attacking an 18-year-old in December 2023.
The woman was getting a lift home from Inverness, but the driver drove past her village, parked up in a lay-by between Strathpeffer and Dingwall, and sexually assaulted her.
He then left her in sub-zero temperatures in Dingwall.
His taxi driver’s licence, allowing him to drive, was suspended in January 2024 after his crimes came to light - however there was a public backlash after the council’s licensing committee voted in favour of him retaining his operator’s licence.
Six male councillors voted in favour, overruling the four female councillors who voted against. Four of the male councillors have since resigned from the committee, including one who resigned from office completely, and a fifth was suspended.
The full Highland Council was set to meet again on Tuesday morning to review the decision but it has now emerged that he “handed in his licence and plates” to the local authority late on Monday afternoon.
Highland Council convener Bill Lobban told the Scotsman: “I was advised that he has handed in his licence and plates. The meeting will go ahead but these will not be on the table.
“They no longer exist.”
Highland Women’s Rights Group were set to hold a protest outside the council’s Inverness headquarters while the meeting took place.
Andrew Baxter is the Lib Dem MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch and a Fort William and Ardnamurchan councillor.
Earlier in the day, before the licence was surrendered, he said: “Given the unprecedented level of media coverage and discussion across social media, this case has been impossible to ignore.
“The legal question is a straightforward one - is David Brown, a convicted rapist who committed his offence while working as a taxi driver, a fit and proper person to hold a taxi operator’s licence? In my view there is only one possible answer to that question - no.
“There can be no mitigating circumstance that outweighs the need to protect public confidence and public safety.”
Mr Baxter added he is seeking a meeting with Justice Secretary Neil Gray to discuss private licensing hearings at local authorities and will “press for legislative change to ensure that those convicted of rape and other serious sexual offences are prohibited from holding taxi driver or taxi operator licences in Scotland”.
Highland Women’s Rights Group say they also demand “full transparency”. The group said: “This meeting must not be held in private.
“The public deserves to know our women are safe and that councillors are voting in the interests of the public they serve.”
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