Twisted taxi driver rapist Raymond Shorten threatened to kill himself if daughter didn’t stand by him

Leah Mates told how the desperate father-of-seven pleaded with family to stand by him – insisting he was innocent

Twisted taxi driver rapist Raymond Shorten threatened to kill himself if his daughter didn’t stand by him, she has revealed.

Leah Mates, 19, also revealed she is going to have her surname changed by deed poll as she wants to remove all association from him.

Last week Shorten, 50, was jailed for 30 years for raping two women in his taxi in 2022 – and for raping a seven-year-old child a decade earlier.

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But speaking yesterday, Leah told how the desperate father-of-seven pleaded with family to stand by him – insisting he was innocent. She said: “He proper victimised himself. In 2021 when he was first questioned he said to us kids, ‘If one more person doesn’t believe me, I’m going to kill myself’.”

These pictures show how Shorten passed himself off as a family man before being exposed as a multiple rapist.

He posed for snaps with Leah, her mum Tracey and brother Kyle at Christmas, as they headed off to school, playing football and at the beach. Leah and Tracey, who said she was also raped by the predator, revealed how Shorten’s true colours emerged.

Tracey, 44, said: “When I got with him he was love bombing me big time. We moved in together within six weeks. I was pregnant with her from him within three months and then by that Christmas we were engaged.

“He had already started the abuse and I was questioning my own self. The word narcissist is thrown around but he is actually a narcissist. He actually believes he is innocent. But when you’re in it you just can’t see out of it.

“I used to have his name tattooed. I got that covered and put karma there. When he saw it he laughed. I said it might take 10 years, it might take 20 years but it’s coming. Ten years to the day he got arrested. So it does come.”

Shorten’s first known victim came forward to her grandmother in 2020 who told her he raped her as a child in 2012.

Despite a Garda probe, he kept his taxi licence until 2022 when he attacked two passengers. Tracey believes they could have been spared had action been taken to revoke his licence in 2020. She added: “As soon as he was being investigated for a sexual assault, they should have taken his SPSV licence."

In a statement last week, Gardaí said they revoked Shorten’s SPSV licence “upon the commencement of investigations in these cases in 2022”.

Tracey told how he frequently left her alone and was likely off having multiple affairs. She said: “He was a milkman at the time and was a courier as well. He would get €500 for doing that and give me €70 to live on.

“I would take all the kids from the previous relationship, he would be there when they’re dropped, then he would disappear. I would have six kids and was pregnant with one in a two-bedroom house.”

Leah also spoke about the moment she and her mother found out about the allegations Shorten raped a child he knew. She said: “I was in the kitchen and I just started crying but I instantly believed her.

“I had blocked him two weeks before because when Covid hit he started only texting me when he was drunk. He was lying constantly and it was annoying me. As well that year he was following me. I was getting scared so I just blocked him.”

Tracey added: “The grandmother and others came into our kitchen and handed me the letter from the victim.

“I read it and said, ‘That’s absolutely true,’ without hesitation. I called Leah into the kitchen and said, ‘You’re going to read this and make up your own mind, it doesn’t matter, whatever you think’. Then she said straight away, ‘Yeah he did it’.

The mother and daughter also described how the “creep” was often caught watching them and following them from his car after they cut contact.

Tracey said: “He would sit at the end of the road watching them. Sitting at the end of the road like a creep. I’d be getting two buses to school and he’d be following me. At the end he was becoming paranoid. I think he knew we knew it was closing in on him, so he started acting out.”

Leah now wants her Shorten surname legally removed forever. She added: “I’ve been going by [mum’s name] Mates but I’m going to get the Shorten name changed by deed poll. I don’t want anything to do with it anymore.

“People are going onto my Facebook and they’re putting angry faces and stuff on pictures and posts from years ago.

“I don’t choose my parents, it’s not a reflection on me. I’m happy the girls got justice but I don’t like the way I’m being targeted. I have a post up from Father’s Day saying I thought he was my hero.

“Then these people are going back to posts from six years ago and they’re putting angry faces on them. How can they sleep knowing they’re doing that to a 19-year-old who didn’t know that about her dad?”

Leah also told of how she went to Shorten’s trial and the beast tried to blame her. She said: “He was staring at me and said we never had a problem, why are you doing this to me? He just sighed and shook his head at me. He didn’t like that I was in the room because I was his ‘Baby princess’.”

Deluded Shorten repeatedly told family he was innocent – despite convincing evidence and even claimed he would one day be awarded compensation.

Tracey said: “His whole story the last two years has been, ‘I didn’t do it, this will all come out in the end.

“I will get compensation and I will share it with you’. He will die on this hill saying he didn’t do it, rather than say he did and get a lesser sentence. He has always been the victim in his mind.”

Tracey also told of her fears, having learned that Shorten raped a child, that one of her own children might also have been harmed.

She said: “Even now I would say to her and him are you sure nothing happened."

Tracey, who is now a wheelchair user, said Shorten used to attack her constantly – once kicking her in the back when she was pregnant – all of which she believes contributed to her condition.

Now justice has been done, both women say they hope to move on from years of trauma and abuse. But they say their thoughts first go out to evil Shorten’s victims.

Leah said: “I don’t think any number of years in prison is enough to get them girls justice for what he done to them to be honest. I just feel so bad for them girls.”

“The fact that he tried to say they initiated it, like have a look at yourself. He genuinely believes he’s the victim here. I can tell you he is sitting there saying that.”

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