A taxi driver from Adeje has been sentenced to six years in prison for raping a 22-year-old holidaymaker who was on holiday in the south of Tenerife.

The Provincial Court of Santa Cruz also ordered the 36-year-old man to pay the German victim €20,000 in compensation following the sexual assault, which took place in September 2022.

Prosecutors had originally requested a 10-year prison sentence and €25,000 compensation, while the defendant’s lawyer called for him to be acquitted.

In addition to the prison term, the convicted man is banned from approaching or communicating with the victim for ten years and will be subject to five years of supervised release after completing his sentence.

Victim took taxi after leaving Veronicas

According to evidence presented during the trial, the young woman had been enjoying a night out in Veronicas, in Playa de Las Americas, while on holiday with her parents in Tenerife.

She left a nightclub at around 3:00am and got into a taxi intending to return to where her parents were staying.

However, instead of taking her directly to her destination, the court heard that the driver took her to an isolated area, where he sexually assaulted her.

During the proceedings, the defence highlighted differences between two accounts the victim had given of the sequence of events.

The court did not consider these differences sufficient to undermine her testimony. The victim explained that she had lost her sense of time during the incident and that some details had become more difficult to remember.

Family describes devastating impact

During the trial, the woman and her parents described the profound effect the attack has had on her life.

They told the court that she has not been the same person since the assault, and that she subsequently lost both her home and her job in Germany.

She has remained under psychiatric treatment and, according to evidence presented to the court, has experienced self-harming thoughts and difficulties leaving her home.

The defendant denied raping the woman

He was also questioned about traces of his semen reportedly found on the victim’s clothing and body. He said he did not know how they had got there and suggested that it might somehow have happened after she touched various parts of his taxi, including the car’s audio equipment.

The Provincial Court ultimately convicted him of the offence and imposed the six-year prison sentence.