A man who sexually assaulted a young woman in Dublin city centre after following her around for half an hour as she tried to get away from him has been jailed for two years and three months.
Adel Kerai (26) had just arrived in the Republic of Ireland five days earlier when he saw the 22-year-old woman waiting for her boyfriend outside a store on O'Connell Street and decided he “fancied” her, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.
Kerai, of no fixed abode in Dublin 1, pleaded guilty to one count of sexually assaulting the woman on Henry Street on December 10th 2023. He is originally from Algeria and is seeking asylum in this country, defence counsel said.
The woman was on the phone to her boyfriend at the time, which was around 11pm, the court heard. Kerai approached the woman and started speaking to her, managing to hang up her phone in the process, Garda Stephen Conran told Patrick McCullough BL, prosecuting.
The woman started walking towards the GPO and then turned down Henry Street in an effort to get away from Kerai, but he followed her and put his arm around her shoulders.
They walked down to the end of Henry Street, with the woman still trying to shake off Kerai.
The incident culminated in Kerai trying to kiss the woman, putting his hand down her top and touching her genital area over her clothes before pressing his erect penis against her.
The woman tried to push Kerai off, but he was too strong, the court heard. At that point, her boyfriend phoned her back and a passer-by came to her aid when they saw she was crying. Two gardai on foot patrol also noticed something was amiss and came on the scene.
Prosecution counsel said the entire incident lasted for 30 minutes, with portions of the offence captured on CCTV.
Kerai was arrested at the scene and has been in custody ever since. He had no passport or official documents to show gardaí and initially gave a different name and date of birth.
He has four previous convictions from the UK, where he was living for one year prior to coming to Dublin. He is originally from Algeria and is seeking asylum here on the basis that he was persecuted for his political beliefs.
A victim impact statement was handed to court, but not read out.
Keith Spencer BL, defending, said his client “fancied this young lady” and was under the misapprehension that she liked him too. He said Kerai had drunk alcohol that day, which affected his judgement.
He wished to apologise unreservedly for his actions that day, the court heard.
Mr Spencer said Kerai intends to apply for asylum in this country and wishes to build a life for himself here upon his release from custody.
Sentencing him on Tuesday, Judge Martin Nolan said Kerai had “no right whatsover to behave in this way” and that the entire encounter was “totally uninvited”.
He said an aggravating factor was “the way he approached her, totally without invitation, on a public street when she was going about her business”.
“For the injured party, this was very frightening,” he said.
“How he approached this girl was particularly bizarre - to walk up to somebody and behave this way,” the judge said.
He set a headline sentence of four years and reduced it to 27 months, taking mitigating factors into account. He backdated it to last December when Kerai went into custody.
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.
