Hobart taxi driver hopes to take his appeal against his rape conviction to the High Court

A Hobart taxi driver has applied to the High Court for leave to appeal against his conviction for raping a passenger.

A taxi driver is hoping to take his appeal against his rape conviction to the High Court.

A HOBART taxi driver who was convicted of raping a passenger is hoping to take his fight to clear his name to the High Court.

A Supreme Court jury last year found Cosmas Paite, 37, guilty of raping a passenger in his cab while parked in her Glenorchy street in the early hours of June 26, 2016.

He was sentenced last June to five years’ jail with a non-parole period of three years.

Last month the Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed Paite’s appeal against his conviction.

In the court’s decision, handed down in Hobart on May 8, Justice Robert Pearce and Acting Justice Shane Marshall said it was their opinion Paite had not demonstrated the jury verdict was unsafe and unsatisfactory.

In a dissenting view, Justice Stephen Estcourt said he would have quashed Paite’s conviction and substituted a verdict of acquittal.

Paite has now applied to the High Court for leave to appeal against the conviction.

If his application is successful, the court will then hear Paite’s appeal.

A hearing date for the application has not yet been set.