Knifeman wanted woman to have sex with flatmate, court told

A Dublin man tried to force a young woman to have sex with her flatmate and then cut her with a knife, a court heard today.

Stephen Phelan, 20, from Poddle Close in Kimmage was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault and assault causing harm to the woman by a jury in June.

It occurred during a spree of burglaries carried out by Phelan and another man in February 11 2003, which involved the robbery of DVD players, laptops, two cars and the stabbing of a householder eight times.

At the sentencing hearing in Central Criminal Court today, Detective Sergeant George McGeary said Phelan and his accomplice had broken into a house in Harold’s Cross, where four people were living, including the young woman.

They were armed with a screwdriver, a Stanley knife, a Swiss army knife, a dumb-bell and a hacksaw.

After searching the house for property and money, Phelan went into the bedroom of a 24-year-old tenant. She screamed when she saw him and shouted at her flatmate to get her trousers.

The court heard he came into the room and told her: “Give us what we want or we’ll cut you.”

He was unable to find her ATM card and told her to take off her clothes, where he believed she was concealing it.

Later in the burglary, he came back into her room and told her to lie down on the bed or he would cut her nipples.

She refused several times to take off her clothes but then Phelan came back, held a knife to her throat and told her to ’take off her f*****g clothes’.

Detective Sergeant McGeary told the court that she was crying while she took her trouser bottoms off.

He used his knife to cut off her underwear and then told her to have sex with one of her two male flatmates.

He refused, saying ’She’s my friend’ but was then cut twice on the upper arm in a X shape.

The young woman was then ordered into the bedroom of another flatmate, who had been forced to lie naked on the bed.

Phelan told them to have sex together and they kissed, pretending to have sex.

Detective Sergeant McGeary told the court that both of them had been terrified by Phelan’s threats.

Judge Philip O’Sullivan is expected to pass sentence in the afternoon.