A Benidorm taxi driver has had his acquittal on rape charges confirmed by the Supreme Court after he was found not guilty earlier this year after being accused of a raping a British woman in Benidorm on Halloween night in 2008.
DNA evidence helped to track the alleged offender down and led to his eventual arrest, but it was the collection of his DNA evidence that led to his acquittal at his trial, with the Supreme Court upholding that verdict in a written statement, despite the dissention of one of the judges.
The driver was acquitted in February after it was revealed that his constitutional rights were not upheld when he gave a DNA sample in 2010, with no legal representation present. On those grounds, he was found not guilty, with prosecutors then taking the matter to the Supreme Court.
The victim told the court in Alicante earlier this year that she would “never forget his eyes”, after he was accused of picking her up as a passenger after she had been out with a few friends. He drove past where he was told to go and took her a remote location where he allegedly assaulted her as well as robbing her of her belongings which included her purse with cash and credit cards in it.
The woman said that after the accused drove after the sexual assault with her property in his cab, she ran away down the middle of a road until a car stopped and the Guardia Civil were called in.
The defendant said that he had never driven a taxi before and had actually been out partying that night in various British bars in Benidorm which were full of people, and therefore accounted for the fact that his DNA might have been found on the victim’s clothes. Expert forensic witnesses told the court that the man’s DNA was a match to the woman’s bra.
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