A woman who woke up to find a family friend raping her has spoken of how in the aftermath she had attempted to cut out “my privates” and had attempted to cut her face because of comments the man had made to her.
Albert Crowley (68) formerly of South Block, Mount Anthony, Ardee Road, Dublin 6, which is residential housing for older people, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to a charge of rape at his home on March 8th, 2019. He had further denied five charges of sexual assault, including two offences of attempted rape of the then 23-year-old woman.
He was convicted by the jury on all charges last March following a seven-day trial. He indicated through his counsel on Monday that he believed that the woman had been consenting to sexual intercourse.
Previous convictions
Crowley has nine previous convictions including one for armed robbery handed down in the Special Criminal Court over 20 years ago. His other convictions are for road traffic and theft offences.
On Monday Crowley was sentenced to six years in prison with the final six months suspended. Siobhán Ní Chúlacháin BL prosecuting told the court that while the woman does not want to be named in reporting of the case, she does not have an issue with Crowley being named in court reports.
A local investigating garda said the woman had returned to the Crowley’s home, along with her boyfriend, after the three had been attending a funeral nearby. They continued drinking in the man’s home through the day and into the following morning, at which point the woman’s boyfriend left the house. Crowley then left to go to a shop to get a mixer for a bottle of rum he had. The woman got into the man’s bed and fell asleep.
It had been her intention to get up again when Crowley returned to his home and to continue to drink with him and the woman was also expecting her boyfriend to return to the house.
The garda said the woman woke up when she heard sexual moaning in her ear and could feel someone having sex with her. She pushed up and saw Crowley. She slapped him and told him to get off her.
Neighbour
The woman told gardaí that Crowley looked shocked and frightened that she had woken up. She ran into a next-door neighbour to look for help and Crowley followed her. She told the neighbour that she had just been raped by a man she had known her all her life.
The woman’s victim impact statement was read into the record by Roisin Lacey SC prosecuting (with Ms Ní Chúlacháin) in which she stated that she hates herself for not being wiser to allow herself to fall asleep in his apartment. “I fell asleep in the house of someone I trusted,” she said before she added that she was intoxicated at the time.
She said she carries anger and pain with her and feels like her body is not hers. “I feel weak and degraded. I suffer from PTSD, get flashbacks all the time and feel sick to my stomach. It feels like my chest is caving in,” the woman’s statement continued before she outlined incidences of self-harm including an attempt to “cut out my privates”.
The woman said she was violated of her rights to “feel comfortable in my own body” and had “attempted to cut my face because of the comments he had made. An old man had seen in me that which I wish he had not,” she continued.
The woman spoke of how after seeing Crowley at the trial she had overdosed and was hospitalised for five days. “I struggled to survive when I see his face in my head”, she said.
Mr Justice Michael McGrath said in the court’s view the woman was “brave and courageous” and had suffered significantly. He said she has continued to endure significant psychological effects which has resulted in episodes of self-harm and thoughts of taking her own life. He noted that it has also impacted on her ability to look after her own child.
He said the woman had been asleep and in a state of intoxication when she was raped and Crowley had taken advantage of those facts. He noticed the 40-year-age gap and said that the fact that Crowley was a trusted family friend there was a breach of trust involved in the case.
