Rapist jailed for four months

A MAN who took part in a brutal gang rape of a woman at Cratloe in Co Clare in 2004, when he was aged 16, has been jailed for failing to notify gardaí of where he was living, which was compulsory after he been placed on the Sex Offenders Register as part of his sentence for the horrific attack.

Dean Barry — who has 32 previous convictions including engaging in threatening or abusive behaviour, theft and burglary — was sentenced to four months jail yesterday at Limerick District Court.

He had failed to notify gardaí of a change in his address.

He was also given a three-month concurrent prison term for a public order offence.

Barry, formerly of Garryglass Avenue, Limerick city, was one of four teenage boys and a 24-year-old man, sentenced for a savage rape and serious assault of a woman and her male companion in January 2004.

In July 2004, Barry was jailed for nine years, with the final year suspended, and given temporary release in February of this year.

Barry returned to Limerick from Dublin on October 5 this year.

The court heard he failed to inform gardaí of a new permanent address upon his return to Limerick and, he had failed to get accommodation in Abbeyfeale and Caherconlish — two rural Limerick towns.

Barry, now aged 22, was arrested by gardaí last Thursday night, after he was found in “a highly intoxicated state” near his former home.

Garda Stephen Jenkins, Roxboro Road Garda Station, said detectives were about to conduct a search for Barry when they found his whereabouts “by pure chance” when a colleague informed them Barry was in a cell at the Roxboro Garda Station, after he was picked up for being drunk and disorderly.

On January 23, 2004, Barry and fellow 16-year-olds Thomas O’Neill from Lenihan Avenue, Limerick and Darragh Ryan, Ballinacurra Weston; 14-year old Jason Ring, from Crecora Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston; and 24-year old Stephen Barry of Roxboro Road, Limerick, each took a turn raping a woman, assaulting her, falsely imprisoning her and her companion, and assaulting the man with golf clubs.

The five were also armed with a screwdriver, a wheel-brace and a shovel when they subjected the woman and her male companion to 45-minutes of horror.

They ordered the man into the boot of the couple’s car while Barry held a screwdriver to his side.

From the boot the man heard the gang shout “my turn next” and “we’re riding your bird” as the woman was repeatedly raped.

The woman was dragged into the car and the gang took turns raping her while they threatened to burn the car with her companion in the boot if she resisted.