Taxi driver in court again on rape claim

Shahzad Kayani's first ACT Supreme Court appearance ended without a verdict, and the 59-year-old man is being retried over a charge he had sexual intercourse with a 21-year-old university student without her consent.

He has pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution has alleged the cab driver picked up the young woman near the Canberra Casino in the early hours of April 29, 2007.

Through pre-recorded video evidence the woman spoke of the car pulling up near the UniLodge residential accommodation. She told the court the driver digitally penetrated her before she got out of the cab in distress and left the area.

But Kayani's lawyer, Ken Archer, said the woman was so drunk at the time - and her subsequent accounts of what happened so varied - the jury could not be convinced of Kayani's guilt.

The alleged victim told the court she was ''incredibly intoxicated'' on the evening of the incident. She described leaving her university residence earlier in the evening after drinking with friends, heading into Civic but either being refused entry to nightclubs or not staying long.

Two members of a hen's party told the jury they spotted the complainant curled up alone in a garden bed near the casino in the early hours of the morning. The court heard revellers were concerned for the young woman's safety, called a cab and helped her get into the vehicle.

One of the women said she noted the number plate of the taxi and shouted it aloud in the hope the driver would hear as he drove off.

In her testimony, the alleged victim appeared visibly distressed when asked by the prosecution what happened to her after the taxi parked. ''I think the taxi driver was talking to me, I think he was saying he wanted to kiss me or telling me how beautiful I was,'' she said.

The complainant said the driver asked her to give him oral sex before he had sexual intercourse with her.

Under cross-examination from the defence lawyer at the time, the alleged victim said she could not remember throwing up during the drive, but acknowledged she tended to get tired when she was drunk.

A residential adviser at the woman's dorm said she let the distressed woman in about 3am and, after the alleged victim said a taxi driver had tried to rape her, called the police.

The woman was subsequently taken to hospital, but not before her sister came to her side at the dorm.

But the court yesterday heard the sister, who also gave evidence, wrote to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions saying she did not want to attend the trial, did not get on with her sister and did not believe anything happened to the alleged victim.

The trial continues today.