A 36-year-old taxi driver has been jailed for six years for raping a 22-year-old tourist in Tenerife, following an incident that occurred after a night out in September 2022.

The victim, who was on a family holiday in Spain, had left a nightclub in Veronicas, Playa de Las Americas at around 3am and intended to take a taxi home. According to evidence from the trial, the driver instead took her to an isolated area where he raped her.

The woman told the court she did not physically resist because she was terrified of the threats and intimidation she experienced during the assault. During the trial, she and her parents testified that she has "not been the same person" since the attack, which they said had a "profound effect" on her life. She subsequently lost both her home and her job in Germany following the assault.

The Provincial Court of Santa Cruz sentenced the driver to six years in prison and ordered him to pay the victim £17,000 in compensation. He is also banned from approaching or communicating with the victim for ten years and, after completing his sentence, will be subject to five years of supervised release.

Prosecutors had originally requested a 10-year prison sentence and £21,000 in compensation. The defence called for the driver's acquittal, highlighting differences between the victim's two accounts of events. The victim explained that the traumatic experience caused her to lose her sense of time, leaving her with gaps in her memory. The court did not consider these differences sufficient to undermine her testimony and convicted the driver.