Rapist taxi driver licence decision 'shameful', says council convener

A decision by six councillors to allow a convicted rapist to keep two taxi operator's licences was "shameful", Highland Council's convener has said.

In May, David Brown, 50, from Croy, near Inverness, was sentenced to six years and nine months following an attack on an 18-year-old female passenger.

In June, six male members of Highland licensing committee voted to take no action on licences held in Brown's name but four female councillors voted against the move.

During a special meeting of the full council, convener Bill Lobban said it was a "disturbing episode" in the local authority's history.

The meeting in Inverness had originally been called to review the licensing committee's decision, but Brown surrendered his licences before councillors had the chance to do so.

Lobban, a Highland Independent councillor, said: "Today sees the culmination of quite a disturbing episode in this council's history."

He added that the decision taken by the majority of the licensing committee was "incomprehensible and, in my own personal opinion, shameful".

Lobban said: "It is important we remember at the heart of this matter there is a victim. I fear at times there may have been a lack of attention or focus on them in recent weeks.

"Our sympathies lie with the victim in this case and the significant stress that the consequences of the original decision will ultimately have on them."

SNP councillor Jackie Hendry said she and the three other women on the committee had expected a "straight forward" process of dealing with the licences in June.

She said: "We thought it would be dealt with very swiftly and cleanly at committee and for it to have come out as it did, we were just flabbergasted."

Hendry said Brown giving up his licences was the "right thing to do".

Five of the six councillors now face a no-confidence vote at a meeting of the full council in September.

They include Sean Kennedy, the committee's former chairman, who is a non-aligned councillor after resigning from the Highland Independent group

The others are: Scottish Conservative Ruraidh Stewart; Highland Alliance councillor Duncan Macpherson; John Grafton, who was suspended by the Scottish Liberal Democrats; and suspended SNP councillor Chris Birt.

The sixth committee member, Willie MacKay, resigned from the committee and as a councillor following a row over the decision. He had served as an Independent councillor.

Kennedy, Macpherson and Grafton resigned from the licensing committee last month.

The Scottish Conservatives confirmed on Tuesday that Stewart had also now resigned.

The party said another of its councillors, John Bruce, had also quit the committee. It is understood his resignation was linked to how he voted on Brown's taxi driver's licence at a meeting in January 2024.

That licence - which allowed Brown to drive - had been suspended in January 2024 after details of his offences emerged.

His separate operator's licences allowed his vehicle to be used as a taxi business.

The licensing committee's decision in June was criticised by Rape and Sexual Abuse Service Highland and Rape Crisis Scotland. The charities said it sent a "harmful message" on women's safety.

Grafton and Highland Alliance councillor Macpherson later told BBC Scotland News that councillors voted based on information presented to them at the meeting.

Grafton said he had voted in favour of taking no action to "protect" Brown's family.

He said that with the benefit of hindsight and information that was not available on the day of the meeting, an alternative decision could have been taken.

He added that he had asked officials if there were any legal implications around the licence, and had assured himself that Brown "presented no current threat".

"It is my compassion and my processing which led me to this decision on the day," he said. "We have been told in licensing several times that we are not here to punish – that is the job of the courts."

Macpherson said he was assured by officials that Brown would never be permitted to drive a taxi again.

He said: "Speaking as a father of a daughter and a brother to three sisters, and as a grandfather, it troubles me that the decision I took in the committee has created a feeling of concern or insecurity about women's safety in the Highlands.

"I would never knowingly play any part in compromising the safety of women and girls and I sincerely do not believe that I have done so in this case.

"My concern that the safety of women and girls even appears to have been compromised is too much for my conscience to bear, and this is why I am resigning."

On the night of the attack in December 2023, Brown picked up the woman who had been on a night out in Inverness - she had wanted to go back to her Highland village.

Instead, Brown drove past her destination before pulling into a lay-by near a farm, somewhere between Strathpeffer and Dingwall, and raped her.

He then left her in sub-zero temperatures in Dingwall.

Brown is to appeal his conviction and sentence.