A man who raped his landlord when she was in a state of temporary paralysis after her drugs were spiked and she was raped by another man, has been jailed for seven years.
Dmitrus Aleinkovs (31), with a former address in Dublin 24, was convicted at the Central Criminal Court in October of one count of rape in June 2016. The court heard the victim wishes for Aleinkovs to be identified but to retain her anonymity.
Aleinkovs returned to Latvia before he was charged and has been in custody since his extradition back to Ireland in December 2022.
Imposing sentence on Friday, Ms Justice Karen O'Connor said Aleinkovs' behaviour towards the victim was “degrading and humiliating” in light of the woman's vulnerability.
She said this case was about the “horrific treatment of a human being, a vulnerable woman” who was “rendered powerless by a person who drugged and raped her”.
Ms Justice O'Connor noted the woman was then “subjected to further attack by a person who was living in her home”, saying that Aleinkovs took advantage of the victim, who thought he might help her.
She said Aleinkovs subjected the victim to “further humiliating and degrading treatment” by raping her when she was unable to move.
Having considered the mitigation and Aleinkovs's personal circumstances, she imposed a seven-year sentence, backdated to December 2022 when he went into custody.
The Central Criminal Court heard that the woman, the defendant and others had been socialising prior to the incident. The woman stayed up after others, including Aleinkovs, went to bed.
'Dial a drink' service
She contacted a 'dial a drink' service to get further alcohol and also to obtain cocaine. A short time later, a courier arrived with drugs. This man entered the house and went into the sitting room with the woman.
She was immediately affected after taking the drug, and found herself unable to move her body but completely awake and alert.
In her state of near paralysis, the courier removed the clothes from the lower part of her body, then raped her.
When he was finished, this man arranged her and put a cushion over the lower part of her body. He removed the drugs before leaving.
A short time later, while she was still in a state of paralysis, Aleinkovs came into the sitting room and saw the woman. He then raped her.
The woman gave evidence during the trial that she was internally screaming at Aleinkovs and her eyes made clear she expected help, not a further assault. This rape lasted five minutes, but to her, it felt endless.
Afterwards, Aleinkovs put her jeans on her, then left.
She was later able to get to her phone and raise the alarm, with her father coming to the house to help her.
Reading her victim impact statement, the woman said her life has been “irrecoverably changed”, and the “scars of that day stay with me forever”.
She said she has been living in a “constant state of fear and anxiety” and struggles with panic attacks.
She said she “thought he was going to help me but instead he raped me... he could see in my eyes I didn't want this to happen”.
She said she “could see the pleasure in his face, which was sickening”.
"Spiked drink"
Gardaí made efforts to identify the first attacker, but he still has not been found, the court heard.
In her sentencing remarks, Ms Justice O'Connor said the woman's drugs had been “spiked” by the first attacker, and that the gardaí's extensive efforts to apprehend him had been unsuccessful.
The judge said the aggravating features of this case relating to Aleinkovs' offending included the breach of trust, the woman's vulnerability and that Aleinkovs had been living in her home at the time.
She noted that Aleinkovs had been a tenant living in the woman's house and had been socialising with her prior to his offending. The court considered this offending to be a “huge breach of the trust”, the judge said.
The court heard at an earlier hearing that the victim had sublet part of her home to Aleinkovs before this incident and that there had been consensual sexual intimacy between them, which ended when he objected to continue to pay rent due to their intimacy.
Aleinkovs made a voluntary statement to gardaí and provided a DNA sample. He left the jurisdiction and travelled to Latvia without having been charged.
A European Arrest Warrant was issued and Aleinkovs was extradited to Ireland in December 2022. He has been in custody since then and has no previous convictions.
Ms Justice O'Connor noted while was no suggestion Aleinkovs was trying to evade justice, “his departure led to delay in this matter progressing”.
She noted the mitigation includes Aleinkovs's work history in this country and his lack of previous convictions.
"Constant worry"
In her impact statement, the woman said what happened has also affected her family who has been “living in a state of constant worry”. She said it has had a “devastating effect” on her relationship with her children, as she is pushing her anxieties and “irrational” fears about men onto them.
She said she has feelings of worthlessness and low self-worth. She said she fears sleep paralysis and doesn't feel safe when she sleeps.
The woman referred to the shame she felt “when this was all over and my Dad looking at me lying there helpless knowing what had happened before he arrived was soul destroying”.
“I will never forget the look in his eyes,” she said.
She described feeling like she was not worth anything that night, but was “something to be used and discarded like rubbish when he finished with me”.
The woman said she feels dirty and tainted in a way that will never be clean again. She also fears intimacy and worries she will never have a normal relationship again.
She asked the court to consider the emotional and psychological “devastation” caused to her life and expressed the hope that “justice can be served to bring some sense of closure”.
Ms Justice O'Connor thanked the woman, noting that “it takes courage to walk up here in a very formal environment and sit in front of a group of strangers and to provide a statement like this” and to go through a criminal trial.
She wished the woman well for the future.
The investigating garda agreed with Eanna Mulloy SC, defending, that while gardaí looked at the woman's phone, it was not forensically examined. It was further accepted that leads to identify the first attacker dried up after two properties were searched.
Mr Mulloy outlined his client's personal circumstances, work history and other mitigation.
He said his client decided to return home before any criminal charges had been brought.
He asked the court to take into account all of the surrounding circumstances including the other “predator” who “availed of tools, medications, and planned a particular operation to take advantage of the victim's trust in relation to services she was paying for”.
Mr Mulloy submitted to the court that some of the victim's distress was “initiated by another offender who remains at large”.
He asked the court for as much leniency as possible for his client.
