No-confidence vote in councillors who allowed rapist to keep taxi licences

Highland councillors have overwhelmingly delivered a vote of no confidence in five councillors who allowed a taxi driver convicted of rape to keep two taxi operator licences.

David Brown was jailed for almost seven years in May after carrying out an attack on an 18-year-old passenger in a Ross-shire lay-by in December 2023.

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

Following a backlash, Brown surrendered his licences. The vote of no confidence related to Sean Kennedy, Chris Birt, John Grafton, Ruraidh Stewart and Duncan Macpherson.

Four of the councillors previously resigned from the licensing committee along with Willie Mackay, who has since also quit the council. A by-election will be held in his Wick and East Caithness ward.

However, Chris Birt is still on the committee.

It is now up to the individual councillors to decide whether to resign as councillors.

They include the committee's former chairman Kennedy, who resigned from the Highland Independent group and is now a non-aligned councillor.

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

The no-confidence vote involved 56 councillors, following a debate of almost two hours.

Last month, First Minister John Swinney said the original vote had been a "terrible controversy" for Highland Council and that the committee had made the "wrong decision".

However, he added that he felt the local authority had "properly and fully faced up to it".

The decision was also criticised by rape charities who said it sent out a harmful message to women.

They said "a convicted rapist who used his professional position to attack a young woman" should not be permitted to hold a licence in that same industry.

Brown, 50, had picked up the 18-year-old woman who had been on a night out in Inverness in December 2023. She wanted to go back to her Highland village.

Instead, he drove past her destination before pulling into a lay-by near a farm, between Strathpeffer and Dingwall, and sexually assaulting her.

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

Brown had denied the charge of rape and claimed he had a consensual sexual encounter, but was found guilty after a three-day trial in Edinburgh in April.

His taxi driver's licence was suspended in January 2024 after details of his offences emerged.

His separate taxi operator's licences went before the Highland licensing committee for review on 23 June.

An operator's licence is not transferable and can be granted for up to three years.

The licensing committee had heard from Brown's wife at a private meeting where she had asked for the licence to continue so her family would not lose its income.

The council committee voted to take no action over the licences. Other options were to suspend or revoke them.