Four councillors quit after vote for rapist taxi driver to keep operator licence

Four councillors quit after vote for rapist taxi driver to keep operator licenceImage source, Highland CouncilImage caption, Willie MacKay, far left, has resigned as a councillor after quitting Highland licensing committee along with Sean Kennedy, Duncan Macpherson and John GraftonPublished1 hour agoFour councillors who voted to allow a rapist taxi driver to keep his operator's licence have quit Highland Council's licensing committee.David Brown, 50, was jailed for six years and nine months in May after attacking an 18-year-old female passenger in December 2023.Last month, following a request from Brown's family, the committee's six male councillors voted to allow his operator's licence to continue, while its four female councillors voted against it. After criticism of the decision, the chairman Sean Kennedy along with John Grafton, Duncan Macpherson and Willie MacKay have resigned from the committee.Independent councillor MacKay has also resigned as a councillor, while Grafton has been suspended by the Scottish Liberal Democrat group on Highland Council.Kennedy was an Independent councillor.Brown's taxi driver's licence - which allows him to drive - had been suspended in January 2024 after details of his offences emerged.His separate operator's licence allows his vehicle to be used as a taxi business. Allowing rapist taxi driver to keep operator licence is 'harmful message'Published3 days agoTaxi driver raped teenager, then dumped her in sub-zero temperaturesPublished15 MayHighland licensing committee was asked to consider Brown's operator's licence just weeks after he was sentenced at the High Court in Stirling.The court heard Brown picked up the 18-year-old who had been on a night out in Inverness and wanted to go back to her Highland village.Instead Brown drove past her destination before pulling into the lay-by near a farm, somewhere between Strathpeffer and Dingwall, and sexually assaulted her. He the...