Woman’s whole life ‘upended’ by rape

The judge sentencing Faisal Ellahi for the rape of a young woman with Down syndrome has said the victim has had her whole life upended by the attack.

At a sentencing hearing yesterday, Padraig Dwyer, defending, submitted to Mr Justice Tony Hunt that he didn’t know if the effects of the offence on the victim in this case were worse than in other rape cases.

Mr Justice Hunt said he disagreed: “This goes beyond trauma. This victim’s life has been upended in the most radical way.”

He agreed with Mr Dwyer that the victim had the support of a loving family to help her but said that “all of their good work has been set at nought”.

At a hearing last week, the victim’s mother told the court that years of work building up the independence of her daughter were instantly destroyed when she was raped by Ellahi.

Ellahi was convicted in December of raping and sexually assaulting the woman after luring her back to his apartment when she became separated from her mother near their Dublin home.

Ellahi, from Haripur in Pakistan, had pleaded not guilty to rape, sexual assault, and having sex with a mentally impaired person at his home on June 12, 2013. The jury was not required to deliberate on the third count if it convicted him of rape.

He has no previous convictions in this jurisdiction and gardaí are unaware of any convictions in Pakistan.

Mr Justice Hunt agreed with counsel the case involved a single incident of rape, unlike cases of multiple rape or rape over a prolonged period of time, which Mr Dwyer had presented to the court.

But he added: “The effects of [that single incident] are horrendous, way beyond the normal range of the offence, because of the victim.”

Mr Dwyer told the court he was seeking a psychiatric report for his client to deal with an issue over his IQ level. Mr Justice Hunt listed the case for mention on February 2 to allow time for this report to be prepared.

He previously told Ellahi’s counsel that any prospect of a partially suspended sentence would be contingent on him agreeing to be deported to Pakistan on his release.

Mr Dwyer said he had discussed this with his client and that Ellahi is willing to enter a bond to leave the country. The judge said he had not intended to extract an “undertaking” from Ellahi and said all options were open to him.

“He can enter a bond and clear off,” the judge said yesterday.

Mr Dwyer told the court that most cases of rape do not attract sentences of more than 10 years. The judge said whether this is correct or not is “another day’s work”.

He later told Mr Dwyer: “I don’t have a punishment fetish.”

Mr Justice Hunt said while he had no issue with how the victim was cross-examined by counsel, he did have “serious issues” with Ellahi’s testimony at trial.