Student faces sentence for sexually assaulting woman

A Cork-based student who sexually assaulted a woman after climbing into her bed while she was asleep will be sentenced next March.

The victim awoke to find Trevor Andre, aged 27, straddling her and trying to put his penis into her mouth. She punched and then squeezed his testicles and shouted at him to get out.

Andre of Pembroke Woods, Passage West, Co Cork had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape, attempted rape and sexual assault of the woman at a house in Cork on June 8, 2013.

At the end of a trial a jury convicted him of the attempted rape and sexual assault charges. He was acquitted of raping the woman.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt adjourned his sentencing to March and ordered an updated Probation Report.

Andre, a native of Seychelles, told gardaí after his arrest that he accepted she may not have been fully awake and that her eyes were closed throughout the sexual interaction.

In her victim impact report the woman, who is in her 20s, said she cannot sleep without taking tablets and even then she is awoken by vicious nightmares. She suffers panic attacks and has changed from being a confident person to someone who is unable to trust anyone.

Andre told gardaí he had consumed 26 alcoholic drinks on the night and was highly intoxicated. He said he thought the woman was enjoying the sex, saying “I misread everything”.

Sean Gillane, defending, said his client came from a good family in Seychelles and was here to study. He has no previous convictions.