A man who sexually assaulted a sleeping woman after she had told him she did not want to continue with earlier consensual sexual activity between them has been jailed for nine months.
Thomas Headon (40) had met the English woman earlier that night while they had been out socialising separately in Dublin city in April 2013. She and her friend invited Headon and another man back to their hotel room.
Detective Sergeant Brian Hunt told Fionnuala O’Sullivan BL, prosecuting, that Headon and the woman had been kissing and cuddling in the bathroom of the hotel room before they had sex in the bath.
The woman later told gardaí she then “hit a brick wall” and the interaction between them got a bit awkward, so she told Headon she was tired and did not want to do it anymore.
He was pressing himself against her and was very insistent, but she turned to him and said no, the court heard.
She told gardaí she was very stern and repeated “no” before she got dressed and lay flat out on the bed.
She said she “went out like a light” but she then woke up to a weight on her back and could feel someone on top of her. She had been dressed in tracksuit bottoms when she went to bed, but she was now naked, the court was told.
She could feel Headon’s penis on her bare skin and it was touching off the side of her vagina, s0 she jumped up and punched him in the face. He replied that he thought they were having fun, but she continued to shout at him before she pushed him off the bed and threw a chair at him.
Det Sgt Hunt said Headon would not leave the room and continued to ask what he had done wrong. Her friend said she was calling the gardaí and Headon left, leaving his clothes behind in the room.
He was brought in for questioning the following day and accepted that the woman had been asleep, and that he had pulled off her trousers and touched her without her consent.
Det Sgt Hunt said Headon went to Brazil, where his girlfriend at the time was living, before he was charged with the offence.
In 2022, when he went to renew his passport, he learned he was on a watch list and returned to Ireland. He was ultimately charged with the offence in August 2022.
Headon, of Winter Garden Apartments, Pearse Street, Dublin 2, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to sexual assault of the woman in the hotel on April 28th, 2013.
Impact
Judge Orla Crowe said the woman had given “a vivid testimony” of the “enduring” and “profound” impact the assault has had on her.
She said Headon had come into the woman’s bed uninvited and naked. She noted he had claimed to gardaí he had intended to wake the woman to see if she wanted to continue with sex.
The judge accepted that various testimonials and letters handed in on the man’s behalf said this behaviour was “an uncharacteristic lapse on his part”.
Judge Crowe said the aggravating features of the case was the fact that the woman had said no. “She had stopped consensual sexual activity. She had gone to bed and she had not invited him into her bed.
“She had fallen asleep. He knew she was not consenting. She had made it very clear that she didn’t want any further contact. There simply was no consent,” the judge continued.
She accepted that Headon only had one previous conviction for a road traffic offence and had not come to garda attention since. She also accepted that his remorse was genuine.
Judge Crowe imposed an 18-month jail term, suspending the final nine months on strict conditions including that he engage with the Probation Service for 12 months upon his release from prison. She took into consideration that Headon’s name would now be on the sex offender’s register.
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.
