Chef gets seven-year sentence for rape

A Westmeath chef who raped a young woman after inviting her back to his apartment for a party has been given a seven-year sentence.

Samir Mansour, aged 48, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to raping the woman at his then apartment at Windmill Hill, Prospect, Dublin Road, Mullingar, on January 8, 2010.

Mansour, with a current address at The Lock, Market Point, Mullingar, was convicted by a jury after six and a quarter hours’ deliberation following a trial this month.

The Court of Criminal Appeal had last year ordered a re-trial in the case after finding that questions from a previous jury prior to his initial conviction on four charges in 2012 had rendered the outcome unsafe. The trial had also collapsed on one occasion prior to his initial conviction.

At a retrial last year, Mansour was acquitted of a number of counts, but the jury disagreed on the rape charge leading to the final trial this month. The case was tried on four occasions.

Mr Justice Barry White said that the fact that the case had come before the court four times would have played on Mansour’s mind as well as the victims. He noted the offence has had a deep and lasting effect on the injured party.