Taxi driver in rape case: surveillance camera mysteriously failed during journey
A 49-year-old taxi driver admitted in the Eastern High Court that he had sexual relations with a heavily intoxicated woman following a Christmas party. The camera in the taxi did not work that night.
Camera failed in taxi during suspected rape – case decided in Eastern High Court
A 49-year-old taxi driver appeared on Wednesday before the Eastern High Court and repeated that he could not explain why the surveillance camera in his taxi did not function on the night of 7 December 2024. This is reported by B.T.
"I do not know why the surveillance from the camera in the taxi did not work. I have not deleted anything," the driver said in court.
That night he drove a 29-year-old woman – at that time 20 years younger than him – home from a Christmas party on Amager. According to witnesses, the woman was so intoxicated by wine and schnapps that before the journey she could not provide her own address. Her colleagues described her as 'a rag doll' when they helped her into the taxi. A colleague also explained that she did not believe she would be able to climb the stairs to her flat on her own, and another colleague had found her in the restaurant's toilet, where she could neither stand by herself nor close her trousers.
The driver denies being guilty of rape and explains that it was the woman who made physical advances towards him during the journey. He therefore turned his Mercedes into a side road, where they – according to what he describes as her explicit consent – ended up having sexual intercourse on the front passenger seat.
The journey lasted almost two hours
The drive to the woman's home would have taken a maximum of 14 minutes according to Google Maps. Instead it lasted one hour and 54 minutes. When the taxi arrived, the driver remarked to the woman that he hoped she would not throw up in the car, as that would cost a fee of 2,500 kroner.
The woman reported the driver the following day for exploiting her unconscious state to rape her.
Mechanic cannot explain the failure
The authorised car mechanic who had installed the camera in the windscreen half a year beforehand testified as a witness in the magistrate's court that he could not account for the failure. However, he added that it would be unlikely for the driver himself to disconnect the recording to the memory card without leaving clear signs of damage.
According to the taxi law, failure to activate a taxi's control equipment – including the interior video camera – may result in fines of typically 15,000 kroner to the taxi company and 8,000 kroner to the driver. In this case, however, the sanction is not applicable, as it cannot be proven that anyone was aware of the fault.
Acquitted in magistrate's court – appeal case ongoing
When the case was heard in Copenhagen Magistrate's Court in the summer of 2025, the jury court's three male members found it not sufficiently proven that the woman had been unable to give consent, or that the driver had intent to commit rape. However, the magistrate's court noted that he had acted 'in a highly unprofessional manner'.
The acquittal has now been appealed to the Eastern High Court, where five men and one woman are to determine whether the decision should be upheld. Judgement is expected on Thursday.
Source: B.T.