French student's rapist jailed for eight years

A Limerick man who raped a virgin teenage French student has been jailed for eight years by Mr Justice Roderick Murphy at the Central Criminal Court.

Francis Goggin (aged 33), a father of two, of Lee Estate, Limerick was convicted by a jury on December 3, 2004 of kidnapping, raping and committing aggravated sexual assault on the then 19-year-old French woman.

He had denied five charges of false imprisonment, anal and vaginal rape, aggravated sexual assault and assault causing harm to her between 7pm on August 15 and 1am on Augsut 16, 2003.

The jury found Goggin not guilty of anally raping the woman but guilty of the four other charges after deliberating for one hour and 40 minutes following a five-day trial. The crimes happened in Limerick city.

Mr Justice Murphy imposed concurrent six-year sentences for the false imprisonment and aggravated sexual assault convictions and three years for the assault causing harm.

Afterwards, the victim said she was not happy with the sentence which she thought was too lenient in comparison to what she had suffered.

Earlier, she read a letter in French addressed to Goggin, which was translated from the witness box, in which she told him: "What you have done to me is like taking someone’s life away."

She told Goggin that on the night he attacked her she had just asked for friendship because she wanted "a nice evening for my last night in Ireland" but she was now alone in her suffering and nobody understood her anymore because of the effect of his actions.

"You tried to kill me by strangling me. Why?" She said she had felt herself dying but had tried to keep her hope up and that wasn’t easy when she felt herself dying.

She said she had tried to protect her virginity but he raped her. She now had no boyfriend like other girls of her age and had failed her examinations because she couldn’t concentrate properly. When she did try to concentrate she could feel Goggins’ hands strangling her and hitting her.

She told the court her behaviour had also become very difficult for her parents and her friends and she didn’t trust people anymore. She slept very lightly and had nightmares of it happening again.

The victim told Goggin he would have to be strong to serve his time in jail. She didn’t wish what he did to her onto him but she hoped he would have time to think while in prison where she said he would be alone. "If you had not strangled and raped me you would not be in prison now."

Mr Justice Murphy said Goggin told gardaí when he was told in custody about the injuries suffered by the victim that he wouldn’t "do that to an animal". He still maintained his innocence.

"Telling the gardaí he was sorry for her injuries does not seem to invoke any responsibility for what happened," he said.

Mr Justice Murphy said the victim had spoken "very courageously" in court and showed that Goggins’ attack on her had "long repercussions".

"It has a permanent affect on the victim," he said.

He said Goggin had taken advantage of the victim and lured her to a secluded, unlighted area away from houses along the River Shannon on the pretext of taking her home along a shortcut and then attacked her. The court had to condemn such activities. Drink was not an excuse for his actions.

Garda Thelma Watters told prosecuting counsel, Mr Brendan Grehan SC (with Mr Paul Greene BL), the victim was in Limerick at the time on an English-language improvement course.

A missing person call had been put out that night when she failed to return to her lodgings and gardaí were in the area when a young man helped the victim by calling them.

The victim was in a very distressed and dishevelled state with some of her clothes ‘inside-out’ and buttoned incorrectly when gardaí met her. She had injuries to her lip, neck, and eyes and had a tooth missing. A medical examination confirmed her complaint of sexual assault.

Garda Watters said security video footage showed Goggin with the victim when she first met and his friends. DNA profiles also linked him to the crimes.

Goggin told gardaí he couldn’t remember anything happening or having sex. He said he couldn’t remember anything from about 3pm. He said he didn’t "normally do that kind of thing" and was sorry if he did anything wrong. He also later said he wouldn’t "do that to an animal".

The victim had told the jury she left her lodgings at about 7pm that night and met Goggin and two of his friends on the street when she asked them the time. She didn’t know them before this.

Goggin bought alcohol in an off-licence and the four of them went to a local park where they spent time talking and drinking. She didn’t drink any alcohol and didn’t drink from a bottle of ‘Coke’ they gave her because she thought it had been tampered with and something put into it.

She said she smoked some cannabis they offered her because she wanted to try it but stopped when she began to feel unwell. Other people, including some young women, joined them and left again at various stages.

Goggin told her he was 21 but she didn’t believe him and thought he was at least 30. He offered to walk her home when she said she had to be in by 11pm. They walked for a long time through woodland, with a river at one side, and turned back twice or three times when he said they were on the wrong path.

He tried to hold her hand but she let him do that for only a few seconds and was starting to feel scared. He then suddenly pushed her to the ground and her horrific ordeal began when he grabbed her by the neck so firmly, she said she thought she would die.

"I couldn’t move or do anything and I felt I was in the process of dying. I thought it was over for me and I stopped breathing at one time." He broke one of her teeth when he repeatedly punched her head and face and then she found her trousers being pulled off.

She outlined, through an interpreter, how she tried as much as he could to prevent him penetrating her because she wanted to remain a virgin and suggested he anally penetrate her hoping her ordeal would end with that.

But after raping her anally, she said he succeeded also in raping her vaginally and also kissed her body and licked her vagina. She remembered some judo she had learned and used it to knock him over. She then grabbed his penis so tightly that it hurt Goggin.

She said she wanted to trick him into trusting her by asking if he wanted to try "the six-nine position" and saying they should go to his place for this and "some other French positions", as well as suggesting he should look at her body, hoping it would give her a chance to escape from the lonely place they were in for fear he would try to kill her again.

She said she made Goggin believe she wouldn’t contact the gardaí as they walked. He was behind her, moving slowly because of the drink he had taken.

Eventually she came to houses and after rousing one person out of bed. She ran to another man who had just got out of a taxi. This man telephoned the gardaí who brought her to hospital and photographed her injuries.

She denied suggestions, in cross-examination at the trial by Ms Isobel Kennedy SC (with Mr Mark Nicholas BL), defending, that she consented to sexual activity with Goggin.

"After he tried to kill me, I wanted him to believe I would do sexual things. I had no choice," she said.

"I was thinking how I could get out. I was afraid if he didn’t get his way he would kill me."

Garda Watters agreed with Ms Kennedy that Goggin was in full-time employment at the time of his crime. He had two previous convictions in 1993 for burglary and in 1998 for handling stolen property and was given 12 and 25 days respectively community service by the District Court.