A SCOTTISH council has issued a vote of no confidence for six male councillors who voted to allow a rapist taxi driver to keep his operating licence.
David Brown, from Croy, was sentenced to six years and nine months at the High Court in Stirling earlier this year for raping an 18-year-old woman in a lay-by near a farm in the Highlands.
The 50-year-old had picked up the teenager after she had been on a night out in Inverness and subjected the teen to what Judge Lord Renucci described as a “terrifying ordeal”.
He then dumped the vulnerable teen in freezing temperatures in Dingwall.
Brown's family then applied to renew his taxi operator's licence in his name.
The decision to allow Brown to keep his taxi licence was made after he was found guilty but before he was sentenced.
The six male councillors on the licensing committee voted for Brown to keep his taxi driving licence despite being jailed, while the four women members on the committee opposed the decision.
The male councillors also ignored the advice of Police Scotland, who had objected to the operator's licence continuing in Brown's name.
The controversial vote sparked major backlash, with Caithness councillor Willie Mackay quitting the council as a result.
On Thursday, Highland Council's leader, convener and leader of the opposition brought forward a motion of no confidence in the five other male councillors – Sean Kennedy, Chris Birt, John Grafton, Ruraidh Stewart and Duncan MacPherson.
Birt was suspended by the SNP, while the four other men resigned from the licensing committee.
Thursday's no-confidence vote was passed by 56 votes in favour, while six voted against, and five councillors abstained, STV News reports.
The ethical standards commissioner is currently investigating the decision to continue Brown's taxi operator's licence.
If there is found to be a breach of conduct, the Highland councillors would be referred to the Standards Commission.
