Former taxi driver found guilty of three rapes
FORMER taxi driver Neil Hastie hung his head and stared at the floor after being found guilty unanimously of three rapes and three indecent assaults against two young girls in the 1970s and 80s.
The 65-year-old, known for his involvement in table tennis and other sports such as water polo, had denied the charges, claiming the two women, unknown to one another, had lied about having sex with him when they were under 16.
The first woman to make a complaint, now 43, had been just 11 in the summer of 1981 when Hastie groomed her by taking her out on motorbike rides and buying her drinks and ice-creams.
Naive about sex, the girl was raped three times by Hastie – the first time on a cliff path, the second at his home and the third at a building site he was working at.
She told the court she had found the courage to speak out when her daughter turned 11.
'It is not something I can keep as a sordid secret any more,' she told Jurats.
