SNP Highland Councillor 'suspended' over rapist taxi driver decision

A Highland councillor has been suspended by the SNP group after he voted in favour of allowing a convicted rapist to retain his taxi operator’s licence.

SNP councillor Chris Birt was urged by his group leader to step down from the committee but has declined to make any announcement until his return from a trip abroad.

However, the minority administration has suspended Dr Birt following the vote.

Council leader Raymond Bremner said: “The matter is subject to the group’s internal procedures and policies”

All six men on the committee voted, in private, last month, in favour of the operator licence being continued under the name of rapist taxi driver David Brown, from Croy.

All four women on the committee voted against.

Rapist taxi driver David Brown Alan Simpson

Brown, 50, was sentenced in May to six years and nine months imprisonment for raping an 18-year-old woman passenger in a Highland layby in December 2023.

He then dumped her in Dingwall on a freezing cold night.

Dr Birt had previously opposed Brown’s application, in January 2024, for a renewal of a taxi driver’s licence after learning of the criminal charges against him .

That licence was suspended.

In a statement, the Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh councillor said: “My personal rules for my decisions in the committee are to ensure decisions are lawful, to apply justice fairly and, most importantly, to ensure the safety of the public, as far as this is possible.”

He added: “Our solicitor advised us that it is quite normal for the holders of operator licences not to drive taxis themselves but to employ others to do so.

“Accordingly, as this operator is in prison, he could not himself operate as a taxi driver, so his operator’s licence could remain valid until it expired for other taxi drivers to operate within it.”

Dr Birt said Brown’s wife was the only other driver operating under the licence and continuing to earn a living as a taxi driver.

He said it “seemed to me to be the most just way to proceed, allowing the wife to continue to support herself while offering no possible additional danger to the public”.

He added that he was “as disgusted by this criminal taxi driver’s crimes as anyone else”.

Police Scotland, a consultee on such matters, had objected to the continuation of the taxi operator’s licence in Brown’s name.

Council leader Bremner said: “I hope everyone is first and foremost considering the impact this is having on the victim and, more widely, other women in Highland.

“My personal view is that Councillor Birt should follow the lead of others and resign from the committee.”

Four of the male councillors have quit the committee – its chairman, Sean Kennedy, Duncan Macpherson, John Grafton, and Willie Mackay, who also resigned as a councillor.

Conservative Ruraidh Stewart is yet to comment publicly Highland Council

Councillor Grafton has subsequently been expelled from the council’s opposition Liberal Democrat group.

The sixth male committee member, Conservative group leader Ruraidh Stewart has said nothing publicly about the issue.

The four female committee members have declined to comment prior to a review of the licence decision at a full council meeting in September.

Inverness Central Labour councillor Michael Gregson said: “Highland Council needs to try much harder. While its decision-making is paved with good intentions, it is outcomes that matter.

“The council’s current crisis – of its own making – is undermining people’s confidence in the system’s ability to keep women and girls safe.”

The issue has sparked fierce public backlash. A protest outside the council’s Inverness headquarters is being planned.

An online petition calling for Brown’s taxi operator’s licence to be revoked has almost 4,000 signatures.

Skye, Lochaber and Lochalsh LibDem MSP Andrew Baxter, a former Highland councillor, wants a life ban on convicted rapists seeking either a taxi driver’s licence or operator’s licence.

Romy Rehfeld, chief executive of the Rape and Sexual Abuse Service Highland (RASASH), said her organisation’s thoughts are with the survivor and her family.

“Decisions like this can cause additional stress to survivors and force them to relive their trauma,” she said.

RASASH can be contacted by calling 03330 066 909 or texting 07451 288 080 or via email at support@rasash.org.uk

The national Rape Crisis Scotland helpline is 08088 010 302.