Rapist to be sentenced for canal-side attack

A Dublin rapist who sexually assaulted a woman he offered to drive home will be sentenced in the Central Criminal Court today.

Niall Healy, (aged 30), of Palmerstown Woods, Clondalkin, was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and falsely imprisoning the then 19-year-old victim, a Kildare woman, five years ago.

She met Healy – who was given a 12-year sentence for a previous rape conviction – early in the morning of July 20, 2001, at a housing estate.

She was looking for the home of a female friend when he approached her and claimed to be the woman’s brother.

He gave her his mobile phone to contact her boyfriend, who advised her to go back to her own home as he was tired and had to get up early for work.

Healey also spoke with her boyfriend and agreed to drive the woman home. He later parked by a canal and sexually assaulted her.

She struggled to get out of the car, activating her phone in the process, and was followed by Healy to a canal bridge where he tried to force her to perform oral sex on him.

The boyfriend gave evidence during the trial in June of hearing his girlfriend screaming in the voicemail messages left on his mobile phone.