Four Highland councillors have resigned from the local authority's licensing committee after a private, gender-split vote allowed a convicted rapist to keep his taxi operator's licence, sparking a wave of public anger, party disciplinary action and a rare legal referral that will send the matter before all 74 councillors.
The four men stepped down after voting on Tuesday 23 June to take no action against the operator's licence held by David Brown, 50, a taxi driver from Croy near Inverness who was jailed for six years and nine months for raping a passenger. One councillor has since been expelled from his party group, while another has quit the council entirely.
The committee split six to four along gender lines, with the six male members voting to allow the licence to continue and the four female members voting against. Police Scotland attended the private meeting and formally objected to the licence being retained.
Those who have resigned from the committee are its chair, Sean Kennedy (Independent, Dingwall and Seaforth); John Grafton (Liberal Democrat, Caol and Mallaig); Willie MacKay (Independent, Wick and East Caithness); and Duncan Macpherson (Highland Alliance, Inverness South). The two remaining councillors who voted to continue the licence, Chris Birt (SNP) and Conservative group leader Ruraidh Stewart, have not commented publicly.
The decision has drawn condemnation from MSPs, women's charities and thousands of members of the public, and prompted Highland Council's top legal officer to trigger a formal review process that could see the councillors involved face a vote of no confidence.
The case centres on a crucial distinction between two types of licence. A taxi driver's licence permits an individual to drive a taxi or private hire vehicle, while an operator's licence relates to the vehicle itself. Brown's driver's licence was suspended by the same committee in January 2024, roughly a month after the attack and before he had been convicted, on the basis that he was not a "fit and proper person" to hold it. The June vote concerned only his operator's licence, which was brought back before the committee following his conviction. An operator's licence cannot be transferred to another person.
The committee voted by majority to continue the licence because members felt refusal would unfairly affect Brown's wife, who was said to be unable to transfer ownership of the taxi and to rely on it as her main source of income. A former committee member has argued that the reasonable course would have been to ask Brown's wife to apply for an operator's licence in her own name.
Brown was found guilty after a three-day trial in April, having denied the charge and claimed the encounter had been consensual. The court heard he picked up the woman, who had been on a night out in Inverness and wanted to return to her Highland village. Instead, he drove past her destination before pulling into a layby near a farm between Strathpeffer and Dingwall and assaulting her, later leaving her in Dingwall in sub-zero temperatures.
Sentencing Brown at the High Court in Stirling, Lord Renucci said: "When she got into your taxi that night, she was entitled to think you would perform the function you had been engaged to – that of delivering her safely to her own home, which was some distance away."
The resignations followed the exclusive revelation of the vote by the Press and Journal. Chair Sean Kennedy was the first to step down, saying he was "haunted" by how the decision might have affected Brown's victim.
Duncan Macpherson issued the fullest statement of regret. "My concern that the safety of women and girls even appears to have been compromised is too much for my conscience to bear, and this is why I am resigning," he said. He added: "I think about this in the way members of the public might – if it was my wife or daughter in a cab, would I make the same decision again, knowing what I know now? The answer is no." Macpherson said he believed he had not been given all the relevant information and that a council official had assured him Brown "would never be permitted to drive a taxi for the remainder of his life".
John Grafton said his vote had been based on "compassion" for others said to be dependent on the taxi income, and rejected accusations of prejudice. "I'm autistic and I'm a survivor myself so yeah, I know what it feels like," he said. "I am not potentially the misogynist B------D that some people are making out on the internet." His party group has since acted against him. Liberal Democrat group leader Alasdair Christie said: "The group met on Sunday and agreed to expel Councillor Grafton from the group with immediate effect."
Willie MacKay, a long-serving Wick and East Caithness councillor, became the first member to leave the local authority altogether, with his departure confirmed by a council source.
Political reaction has been swift. Maree Todd, SNP MSP for the Highlands and Islands, said: "I believe that the decision reached by these six male councillors is inexplicable, indefensible, and should be overturned. I have publicly called for the decision to be reversed and for the male councillors involved in this decision to resign from the licensing committee."
Liberal Democrat MSP Andrew Baxter called for a change in the law. "It seems a nonsense that a convicted rapist can hold a taxi driver or operator's licence," he said. "It's time the Scottish Government tightened up the legislation and prohibited them from doing so for the remainder of their life."
Campaigners have expressed frustration that the fallout has focused on resignations rather than remedies. A spokesperson for Rape Crisis Scotland said the charity "wanted solutions, not resignations", while Inverness Women's Aid echoed calls for the decision to be overturned, saying it undermined the taxi industry's efforts to build public trust. A petition demanding immediate revocation, published reasons for the decision and an independent review of licensing procedures has been signed by more than 2,500 people, and a protest was planned outside the council's Inverness headquarters.
The controversy has also revived concerns about attitudes within the local authority. Sources within the council have said they believe there is a pattern of men failing to take action against other men who have committed violence against women, describing "old fashioned misogyny" as still present. A separate motion by councillor Morven-May MacCallum had already called for anti-misogyny training for all councillors, with specific reference to safety in taxis. Convener Bill Lobban said he "fully supported" the motion, adding: "I think every single male member of this council should take into consideration the wording of this motion."
The formal review has been set in motion through a Standing Order 16 Notice of Referral, initiated by the council's Chief Officer for Legal and Corporate Governance. To reopen the decision, the council has effectively had to flag its own ruling as a potential "contravention of law" or "maladministration leading to injustice". The matter will now be reconsidered by all 74 councillors, and it is understood that those who voted to continue the licence could face a vote of no confidence.
The four female councillors who voted against the licence – Jackie Hendry, Emma Knox and Lyndsey Johnston (all SNP) and Kate MacLean (Liberal Democrat) – have opted not to comment until the full council meets. The review is due to take place in September, with the operator's licence understood to remain in Brown's name in the meantime.