Rapist gets 7 years after confessing to more attacks

A man who was jailed in 2005 for the violent rape of three women he followed home has received a seven-year sentence after he confessed to carrying out two more sex attacks.

Pakistani national Salman Dar, aged 33, is currently serving a 15-year sentence for viciously attacking and raping three women in separate nighttime incidents within a six-month period in 2004. This sentence is due to end in September. The seven-year sentence is to start immediately.

The Central Criminal Court yesterday heard that in 2012, Dar contacted gardaí from prison to confess to two more sex attacks carried out in the same six months.

Dar told gardaí: “I had no plan. If opportunity presents, I’ll attack.”

He said it was in the back of his head when he had gone out on each of those nights and he would pick out somebody.

Caroline Cummins, prosecuting, said Dar is a predatory sex attacker who ambushed his victims on their way home.

Dar, formerly of Abbey View, Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, pleaded guilty to an attempted rape at Ranelagh, Dublin, on March 21, 2004. He also pleaded guilty to oral rape and sexual assault at Synge St, Dublin, on May 23, 2004.

Dar attacked both women as they had reached the front door of their home after walking home late at night. He repeatedly punched them as they tried to fight him off. The victims are now aged 42 and 45.

Mr Justice Paul Carney imposed concurrent sentences of seven years for each offence. He suspended the last two years in light of Dar’s confession.

Felix McEnroy, defending, said his client’s decision to contact gardaí was a result of four years of psychological therapy at Arbour Hill prison.

He said Dar was a postgraduate computer science student who comes from a respected and prominent family in Lahore, Pakistan, and arrived in Ireland in 2003.

The court previously heard that Dar had been sexually abused by a man from the age of 14.

At the 2005 hearing, Dar pleaded guilty to raping three other women on dates between February and June 2004 at three locations in Dublin City. Mr Justice Carney had imposed a sentence of 21 years with six years suspended in 2005, but in February 2006, the Court of Criminal Appeal reduced it to 15 years.