A former Whitehorse cabbie will spend the next two years behind bars for the sexual assault of one of his passengers.
Rodrigo Moreno Torres, 41, was accused of sexually assaulting a 23-year-old woman in December 2011.
The victim, who cannot be identified, said she had been drinking heavily that night and remembered very little of when she was assaulted by the cabbie.
After a night out drinking she hired a cab to take her back to her mother’s house around 8 a.m.
Torres picked her up and drove her to her mother’s house. She paid the fare, but then Torres drove her to a secluded bus turnaround where he had sex with her in the front passenger seat.
The victim said that she couldn’t remember how she got back to her mother’s house that night, but her mother testified that she was extremely upset when she came in and locked herself in the bathroom.
During the trial last year, Torres claimed the sex was consensual.
It was a claim that Judge Michael Cozens found “unbelievable.” Torres was found guilty of sexual assault in December.
In a hearing Thursday, he was sentenced to 28 months behind bars for sexual assault. However, with credit for time served he’ll only spend a little more than 22 months incarcerated here in Whitehorse.
That means there’s a chance that Torres, a landed immigrant originally from Mexico, won’t be deported once he is released from jail.
Under Canadian law any non-citizen sentenced to more than two years cannot challenge his or her pending deportation.
Although Torres was sentenced to more than two years, because his sentence was reduced for time already served he still has the right to appeal his deportation order.