Stortford taxi driver accused of Christmas Eve rape tells court alleged victim kissed him first and got into back of car for sexA TAXI driver told a jury today (Tuesday) how he had sex with a young woman who got into his vehicle in Bishop's Stortford on Christmas Eve.
But Tadas Bumbliauskas said that he had not raped her and that she had consented to what happened.
He was giving evidence at St Albans Crown Court, where he pleads not guilty to a single charge of raping the woman in Stortford late on the night of Christmas Eve, 2013 - a month after he had qualified as a cab driver.
Yesterday (Monday), the woman, who was 21 at the time of the alleged offence, told the jury she had gone into town that evening with friends and family members and had drunk in pubs and bars.
At the end of the night she got into a taxi on her own and thought the driver would take her straight home. She said that when the driver pulled up close to her home and attacked her, she just "froze", telling the jury: "I remember clenching my teeth."
Moments earlier she had been sitting in the front passenger seat singing Driving Home For Christmas and told the jury: "I was too drunk to be consenting to anything."
Today, Bumbliauskas, 28, of Northolt Aveue, Bishop's Stortford, who is Lithuanian, told the court he had arrived in the UK in 2008 and for five years had worked in coffee shops at Stansted Airport.
But he wanted to become a taxi driver and spent £2,000 taking the necessary tests before taking up his first job in November 2013.
He said that when the woman got into his cab outside a town centre pub he could tell she had been drinking. He told her the price for the journey and they set off.
He said that because he was new to the job, he asked her for directions as they got near her home. On the journey he said she told him she was short of money, but he said it wasn't a problem. As they got close to her home, he said she gave him directions, but suddenly told him to pull up.
He said she lent forward in her seat, wishing him merry Christmas.
"I thought she was going to give me a peck on the cheek, but she kissed me on the lips. There was a tongue involved as well.
"First of all I was shocked by the fact that she was kissing me. My natural response was to kiss her back as a gentleman. I don't know why it happened, I am not proud that it happened, but at the time I was behaving as a man with a woman."
He said they began kissing and touching, and eventually got into the back of the car, where they had sex.
Afterwards, he said, she got out of the car and walked off.
The case continues.
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http://www.hertsandessexobserver.co.uk/ ... z3OsInpv9Q
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