Manuela killer admits raping student
Gerald Barry, 29, of Rosan Glas, Rahoon, Galway, pleaded guilty to orally and anally raping the 23-year-old woman at a sports ground in Galway city in August 2007.
The French woman, believed to have been a student, was 21 at the time.
Barry was appearing at the Central Criminal Court in Cloverhill courthouse, where the two charges were put to him.
He replied “guilty” to both counts of oral and anal rape at the GAA pitches at Walter Macken Road, Mervue on August 16, 2008.
Wearing a grey, long-sleeved top, grey jeans and sporting a beard, Barry stood with his hands behind his back during the brief hearing.
Mr Justice Paul Carney declared Barry a sex offender and ordered the preparation of a victim impact report.
Paul Byrne SC, for the prosecution, said it would take a number of weeks for the victim impact report to be prepared.
Mr Justice Carney remanded Barry in custody to appear again on July 20.
Barry is serving a life sentence imposed on him last March by Mr Justice Barry White following his conviction by a jury of murdering the 17-year-old girl. They found him guilty following a seven-day trial.
Barry strangled Ms Riedo after having sex with her on a pedestrian walkway known as The Line, close to the Lough Atalia area of Galway city on October 8, 2007.
Ms Riedo, who had only arrived in Ireland three days prior to that to study English at a language school in the city, died from asphxia and had a number of injuries to her head.
The jury of six men and six women took just two hours and 38 minutes to find him guilty of murdering her and also of stealing her camera and a mobile phone.
Mr Justice White also imposed two sentences of five years each for the theft charges concurrent with his life sentence on Barry who was described by Manuela’s parents Hans Peter and Arlette as the “devil”.
They expressed a desire that Barry would spend the rest of his life behind bars and thanked the Irish people for their support and for those who had sent flowers and cards to them along with the gardaí and staff at the Swiss embassy.
Detective Superintendent PJ Durkin told the court on that occasion Barry had been in “trouble with the law” from an early age and had a long list of convictions.
They included five years for violent assault in connection with the murder of Tipperary man Colm Phelan in Eyre Square, Galway, in July 1996; two years for another vicious assault which completely blinded an elderly man who was living at home; and a sexual assault conviction arising out of a complaint by Barry’s ex-partner.
In an emotional victim impact statement read out in court following Barry’s conviction for murder and theft, Mr Riedo said their only child’s death had “taken the future away from us”.
“I will never lead my daughter as a bride to the altar, and my wife will never knit baby clothes for a grandchild, and we won’t have anyone to look after us when we are old,” he said.
Mr Justice White told Barry when sentencing him that he agreed completely with the jury’s verdict. “I trust you have not been unmoved by the evidence of Mr Riedo of the devastating effect of your criminal behaviour on the family of your victim,” he said.
Barry claimed he met Ms Riedo on the evening of her death, which he said was an accident. He said he hadn’t meant to harm her.
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