THE CENTRAL Criminal Court heard that the young woman had been placed in a taxi after she got separated from a friend that night.
She gave the driver, John Ryan, her address but he continued past it to an isolated area where he raped and sexually assaulted her.
He then brought her back to the place at which she had initially requested to be dropped off.
Garda Maria Kiely said the woman, now aged 21, managed to text a friend and she told her she had just been raped.
This friend then phoned gardaí and they met the victim in her accommodation.
The woman had ripped a receipt from the roll in Ryan’s car which had the taxi registration number printed on it. This later led to his arrest.
That same night another garda stopped Ryan in Limerick city, on a separate matter, and noted that he was highly agitated.
Ryan claimed he had picked up a woman who directed him to drive her to Tipperary. He said she later became aggressive and threatened to make allegations about him before grabbing his till roll.
This garda told Ryan that he should make a complaint at a nearby Garda station, if he felt so strongly about it.
Garda Kiely said that on October 17th, 2007, Ryan arrived by appointment to the Garda station after they informed him of the allegations.
He denied that he had raped the woman and said there had been no sexual contact between them. He said he had a medical condition that would prevent him from raping anyone.
A week later Ryan made contact with gardaí and told them that he wanted to change his original story.
He claimed he had consensual sex with the girl and had performed oral sex on her.
Ryan told gardaí that she had initiated the whole incident by kissing him and opening his trousers while he was driving.
He claimed the reason he had earlier denied any kind of intercourse had taken place was because he was afraid he would lose both his wife and his taxi licence.
Conor Devally, defending, said his client was a father of two and guardian for two other children.
He said he could not express his client’s remorse because he intended to appeal his conviction.
Ryan has previous convictions for public order offences, common assault and forgery.