8 years in jail for sex attack of disabled woman

A man who violently sexually assaulted a 58-year-old woman who has an intellectually disability was yesterday jailed for 12 years, with the last four years suspended.

The victim can no longer live on her own after her attacker forced his way into her home.

The attack left her with bruising and abrasions to her shoulder, chest, knees, ankle, her right arm and her buttock, and with carpet burns on her back.

The 29-year-old Kerry fisherman, who cannot be named so as to protect the identity of the victim, had pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court, last November, to aggravated sexual assault of the woman in Kerry on July 29, 2011. He had no previous convictions.

James O’Mahony, SC, defending, said his client was previously a respected member of the community and had worked as a fisherman for many years.

Counsel said his client, who was a binge-drinker, was shocked by his behaviour and remorseful and had taken responsibility for it.

The accused had briefly met the woman in a pub, where she had gone to buy cigarettes. Later on, he went to her house and asked if there was a party on. She told him there wasn’t and he went away.

He came back half an hour later, and when she answered he forced his way in. He grabbed her throat and punched her in the head.

He banged her head off a door and a radiator, before pushing her into her bedroom.

The man pulled her clothes off and had non-consensual sexual intercourse with her on the floor.

During the attack, he called her a “bitch” and a “c**t” and burned her face with a cigarette.

After he left, the alarm was raised, but the woman was so upset that no internal forensic examination was taken.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt suspended the last four years of the sentence, on strict conditions, including that the man liaises with the Probation Service for two years on his release and that he stay away from the victim for 12 years.

The judge expressed his good wishes for the future to the family of the victim, and said that since this part of the procedure was over, it may help them move on.

He acknowledged that the man, by pleading guilty, had saved the woman from giving evidence before a jury and he said it was the main mitigating factor in the case.

Mr Justice Hunt said the woman’s loss of independence, as a result of the attack, was considerable, noting that she has not returned to her work, nor to her home.

Her family have been affected by this and the judge said it has had a significant impact on all of them.

He noted that a probation report suggested that there “was some sort of prior consensual sexual activity”. The judge said that was not a conclusion he could come to, as there was no evidence of it.

Mr Justice Hunt described it as a very nasty offence, carried out with considerable violence and which was followed up by offensive claims that there had been a consensual relationship.

The court heard that the man was identified from DNA found on a memoriam card, which gardaí had spotted the victim clutching when they arrived at the scene. Brown stains on the card were tested and found to be faecal matter. A finger print retrieved from the radiator also matched the accused.