Manuela killer gets two life sentences for rape

GERALD BARRY, the 29-year-old Galway city man who is serving life for the murder of Swiss student Manuela Riedo, was given two concurrent life sentences yesterday for the double rape of a French student in August 2007 – committed just seven weeks before he murdered Ms Riedo in October 2007.

Mr Justice Paul Carney said he had to impose the maximum penalty of life imprisonment for both rapes given Barry’s propensity to kill and rape and because he was “highly likely” do so again if given the opportunity. Barry, a native of Mervue in Galway, with a rental address at Rosan Glas, Rahoon, Galway, stood passively between two prison officers as the sentences were being handed down in the Central Criminal Court in Galway.

Barry had pleaded guilty earlier this week at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin to the oral and anal rape of a then 21-year-old French student at playing pitches in Mervue on August 16, 2007, and to the theft of her personal belongings.