A man who raped a woman he had just invited out for coffee has been jailed for six years following a trial at the Central Criminal Court.
The man pleaded not guilty to one charge of raping the woman in a Leinster town on June 22nd, 2017.
A local garda told Eileen O’Leary SC, prosecuting that on his initial arrest the man told gardaí that he didn’t know the woman.
He later admitted in interview that he knew her but claimed he had not touched her before he said that she had initiated kissing him and took off her own clothes. The man told gardaí that the woman asked him to stop, and they did not have sex.
The garda confirmed that an examination of the woman at a sexual assault treatment unit immediately after the rape had detected semen in her body with matched that of the man's DNA.
The man’s legal team made a formal admission during the trial last December that he had sex with the woman, but it had been consensual.
The court heard that the man does not accept the verdict of the jury and has been on remand in custody since August 2019.
Victim impact
A victim impact statement from the woman was read into the record. She said she felt so frightened when she saw the man in court and described the trial as the most difficult time of her life apart from the rape itself.
She said in the immediate aftermath of the rape she just wanted to die. “I had asked God to let me sleep and not wake up again”.
She said she no longer wanted to live in that town, which forced her into making her family homeless and moving to live in a hotel in another town.
The woman said she was mentally unwell and her children had no idea what was wrong with her.
“I couldn’t tell them because I wanted to protect them. I worry they would have to carry the impact of my assault. I didn’t want them to feel that pain, so I have never told them what happened and will never be able to tell them,” the statement continued.
She said she cleans herself a number of times a day. She described trying to clean herself by burning her skin and going on sunbeds in attempt to do this.
“So my skin would burn away and peel off so I would have new skin,” the woman said before she continued that she would burn herself with a cigarette to stop her anxiety.
Headline sentence
Mr Justice Paul Burns said that a headline sentence of eight years was appropriate taking into account the man’s moral culpability and the offence itself.
He said he had taken into account the man’s lack of previous convictions and good work history but noted that he had put the woman through a trial and a long cross-examination.
Mr Justice Burns said the case warranted a sentence of seven years, but taking into account the mitigating factors, he would suspend the final year of the term on strict conditions including that he engage with the Probation Service for three years upon his release from prison.
The man was registered a sex offender. The sentence was backdated to when he first went into custody in August 2019.
Tessa White BL defending (with Lorcan Staines SC) said her client is originally from Albania but has been living in Ireland for 20 years. He has found it difficult to cope in prison as he does not have a strong support network.
She said he does not accept the verdict of the jury.
Additional evidence
At a sentence hearing last week, the garda told Ms O’Leary that the woman met the man casually in a supermarket earlier that summer, and they had exchanged numbers.
On the night of the rape they had agreed to meet for a coffee and the woman met the man off the bus from Dublin around 9.40pm that evening. The man went to a nearby off licence and bought some beer before he suggested that they go back to his apartment for coffee.
The woman agreed to go back to his home and when they arrived there the man changed his clothes before he came into the sitting room and drank some beer. The woman got up to take of her jacket, but the man began to take off her clothes.
The garda told Ms O’Leary that the woman protested, but the man continued before he walked her naked into a bedroom and put her face down on the bed and raped her.
The garda said the man apologised to the woman. She left and went to a friend’s house, and together they contacted the gardaí.
The garda said that shortly after the rape the man moved to Dublin. He was tracked down and arrested. He was denied bail as he was considered a flight risk.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800 77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/, or visit Rape Crisis Help.
In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.
