Man loses sentence appeal over sexually assaulting woman who showed him room

A man who went to view a student’s room advertised on Daft.ie and sexually assaulted her when she let him in has lost an appeal against his sentence.

Indian national Dileesh Soman, aged 33, of Tramway Terrace, Douglas, Cork, had pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to sexually assaulting a woman at an address in a different part of Cork City on November 11, 2013.

He was sentenced to four years’ in jail, with the final 12 months suspended, by Judge Sean Ó Donnabháin on February 20, 2015.

Soman yesterday lost an appeal against the severity of his sentence, with the Court of Appeal holding that prison was unlikely to be more difficult for him in circumstances where he was well-settled in Ireland and had some command of the English language.

Ronan Munro, defending, submitted that the judge gave insufficient weight to the contention that prison would be much harder for him as a non-national with medical difficulties arising out of a hip replacement.

Mr Justice Edwards said Soman had been living and working in Ireland for more than six years so Irish society was no longer culturally alien to him. Moreover, while his English may not be perfect, he did speak the language and it was at a sufficient level for him to function in the workplace.

Soman was undoubtedly entitled to a reasonable discount for mitigation but he was not wholly co-operative, exhibited no remorse, and had sought to blame the victim to some extent by suggesting that she had consented to some of what he had done.