The Casa de Campo area in Madrid, Spain, where a taxi driver raped an au pair as she slept in his car
Overview of the Casa de Campo area in Madrid, Spain, where a taxi driver raped an au pair as she slept in his car David Sim

A Madrid taxi driver has been handed a seven-year jail sentence after raping a teenage au pair who fell asleep in his cab following a night out.

The Spanish capital's provincial court convicted the unnamed taxi driver for his attack on a 19-year-old South Korean au pair who was returning from a local nightclub with friends.

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The court heard that earlier this year the teenager and a female friend caught a taxi at 4.30am to return home after partying with a larger group at the Joy Eslava nightclub, in central Madrid.

The au pair, who is also a student in the capital, fell asleep in the car, under the effects of a night of heavy drinking, the court heard.

The 60-year-old unnamed taxi driver dropped off the first girl, but he did not take the au pair to the Montecarmelo neighbourhood, north Madrid, where she lived.

Instead, judges heard he took her to the sparsely populated Casa de Campo, a large parkland area, back towards the centre of the capital.

It was there, prosecutors said, he raped the sleeping au pair in the back seat of the taxi, during the incident she woke up and fought her way out of the car. She was later found by a police patrol at a nearby motorway roundabout.

Defence lawyers for the taxi driver said he had only tried to wake up the sleeping teenager, and on doing so she became disoriented and fled the car.

But the court heard that police took the teenager to nearby La Paz hospital, where doctors found she had been sexually assaulted.

"It cannot be denied that the accused had sexual contact", said judges, according to Spanish broadcaster SE12.

The court also said the taxi driver must pay €55,000 (£50,000, $66,300) to the teenager and set an exclusion order, banning him from coming within a mile of the au pair.