A TAXI driver has been jailed for six years after sexually assaulting a 22-year-old German holidaymaker in Tenerife.
The 36-year-old attacked the young woman after she got into his cab following a night out in the popular resort of Las Veronicas in 2022.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife’s provincial court also ordered the driver to pay her €20,000 in compensation and banned him from contacting or approaching her for ten years.
The driver, from Adeje, must also remain under supervised release for five years after leaving prison.
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The attack happened in September after the tourist left a nightclub at around 3am.
She had been on holiday in Tenerife with her parents and hailed a taxi to take her back to their accommodation.
But instead of driving her home, the driver took her to an isolated area where the sexual assault took place.
The woman told the court about the devastating impact the attack has had on her life.
She and her parents said she had ‘never been the same’ since the incident.
The young woman lost both her home and job in Germany and has required psychiatric treatment.
She has also suffered from suicidal tendencies and now struggles to leave the house, according to testimony given during the trial.
The court heard that she had described the sequence of events differently on two occasions.
She explained that she had lost her sense of time and forgotten some details following the traumatic incident.
However, the judges accepted her account and convicted the taxi driver.
Prosecutors had sought a ten-year prison sentence and €25,000 compensation, while the driver’s defence team called for his acquittal.
The defendant denied sexually assaulting the tourist.
He also claimed he did not know how his semen had ended up on her body and clothing, suggesting it could have been transferred after she touched parts of the taxi, including the stereo.
The court ultimately sentenced him to six years behind bars.
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