Taxi driver fined €900 for offensive conduct against teenage girl
The young teen was getting the taxi home from work.
A Waterford taxi driver has been fined €900 for acting in an abusive manner towards a teenage passenger.
Pat Scahill, of Beach Drive, Greenfield, appeared before Judge Jennifer O’Brien in the District Court of Appeal over his conviction.
The 59-year-old, represented by solicitor Hilary Delahunty, was contesting his conviction for offending contrary to Section 38 5 (a) of the Taxi Regulation (Small Public Service Vehicle) Regulations 2015. The charge refers to ‘(5) The driver of a small public service vehicle licence shall not while standing or plying for hire or carrying passengers for reward—(a) act in a manner that is abusive, threatening or offensive to any passenger or intending passenger.’
The Court heard that on the evening of Sunday, January 29, 2023, a young woman called a taxi home, via Rapid Cabs, from her work address in Waterford City to her home in a rural area some kilometres away from the city.
This was a normal practice for the young woman as she did not have a driver’s license. Scahill came to collect her and she got into the back seat of the vehicle.
According to the witness, the journey began normally; “nothing out of the ordinary, it was standard small talk.” Quickly, she said, Scahill started interjecting sexual details into the conversation, first by noting that his son played guitar and referred to the instrument as a ‘f**k magnet’. He continued to make sexual comments first in reference to his son and then his wife. The young woman became more and more uncomfortable as Scahill detailed highly personal details about himself and his wife’s intimate life.
As the journey continued, the woman felt more and more concerned for her safety as he asked her if she had any tattoos and described a lewd tattoo that his wife had had done. The woman said in court that she had only recently turned 18 at the time and described the interaction as ‘fairly uncomfortable, not grooming, but we were going out to the middle of nowhere.’ She took out her phone to text her mother that she felt unsafe, but put it away when Scahill looked in her direction and saw her with the phone.
He went on to detail a caravan he owned that he and his wife used for swinging. When the car parked at her address she saw that the child lock was in use on her door.
At that point, Scahill told her that he ‘wanted to show her something’ and took out his phone. The device showed a website dedicated to polyamory and displayed pornographic videos. He tapped the woman on the shoulder as she exited the taxi and told her to ‘look him up’ if she was ‘interested’.
The woman told the court how taken aback she was when she was presented with the pornographic material. She said: “I didn’t say anything at the time, I wish I did. I never had Pat [as a driver] before, I was using Rapid Cabs for a long time.”
Upon coming home, she told her mother what had happened. She said: “I thought maybe I was reading too much into it but my mother told me ‘No you’re not.’” They contacted Gardaí the following day and made a statement.
Gardaí contacted Rapid Cabs and identified Scahill as the suspect. Scahill was interviewed by appointment and confirmed that as soon as he heard about the issue he ‘knew exactly what it was, what it was about’ and was ‘horrified’. He told Gardaí that he had only asked the teenager if he could show her the website and did not recall showing her pornographic videos.
At Waterford Courthouse, Judge O’Brien heard that Scahill works as both a taxi driver and at a family resource centre, and was apologetic towards the victim for his conduct.
Mr Delahunty argued for his client’s conviction to be struck out over the wording of the original court summons. After a lengthy back and forth between the defence and State Solicitor Frank Hutchinson over precedent, Judge O’Brien ultimately decided to not accept Mr Delahunty’s application. Judge O’Brien ordered Scahill to pay a fine of €900 within the next six months.
