Man gets 12 years for sexual assault on student

A County Clare man has been jailed for 12 years by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court for a "drink fuelled" sexual assault on a Limerick student in a caravan park.

Brian Mulvihill, aged 29, of Lislanahan, Kilkee pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a then 20-year-old woman in County Clare on August 6, 2004.

Mr Justice Paul Carney described the facts of the case as "appalling" and said he was taking into account the range of penalties, fixing the crime on the scale and discounting for factors in favour of the accused.

He said he was also taking into account the aggravating factors such as the effects of the attack on the victim, who wept openly, and "the evidence of my own eyes and the condition she is in in front of me".

Mr Justice Carney fixed a ten-year sentence which he increased to twelve years after noting that Mulvihill's plea had come just before a jury was scheduled to be sworn in for his trial and he could not be given the full benefit of an early plea.

He backdated the sentence to August 29, 2006 and directed ten years post release supervision. Mr Justice Carney also directed that Mulvihill be registered as a sex offender.

The victim wept in court as Garda Oliver Downes read her victim impact statement in which she detailed how she had attempted suicide since the attack.

She said: "As far as I am concerned my life had been destroyed and I feel I would be better off dead."

She had been hospitalised for a week after a suicide attempt she had been planning for weeks that "unfortunately did not work" and was placed on 24-hour suicide watch by the nurses.

"My body was the only thing that was mine and he took that from me. He gave me a life sentence and I don't see any end to it."

She described how the area had been an important part of her life as far as she could remember and she had often gone on holidays there but said this had been taken away from her and "it now holds my worst nightmares".

She said going to college had become a "daily struggle". She found it difficult to study and had failed some exams, jeopardising her degree. She said she also loved her job "but when you are wishing yourself dead every day, work and college are the last thing in your mind."

Gda Downes told Ms Deirde Murphy SC, prosecuting, that the attack happened after a night's socialising in the caravan park where the victim was staying.

She returned to her caravan at about 11.30pm but found she had mislaid her keys and Mulvihill, whom she had met earlier, and herself had climbed in through the window.

He said she had tried to stop Mulvihill kissing her and he then ordered her to take off her underwear. He tried to force her legs apart as she begged him to stop. He forced her to masturbate him and to digitally penetrate his anus as she cried and found it difficult to breathe.

Gda Downes said Mulvihill used his knees to spread her legs and made an attempt to put his penis inside her. She asked him to stop to which he replied "shut up bitch". When Mulvihill rolled off her after losing his erection the victim was sick out the window of the caravan.

Mulvihill said to her "I know you wanted it rough" and kissed her on the forehead before leaving.

Gda Downes said a complaint was made by the victim the next day.

He agreed with Mr John Phelan SC, defending Mulvihill, that his client's eight previous convictions, mainly for road traffic offences, were drink related.

Mr Phelan described the victim impact statement as "harrowing" and submitted that his client had instructed him to apologise "with all the sincerity he can muster" to the victim.

He said his client had developed a dependence on alcohol in his twenties and it was at this stage he had come to the attention of the garda in relation to his previous offences.

He described the attack as "drink-fuelled" and said the language used in the attack by Mulvihill bore this out.