Russian get 10 years for Dublin rape

A Russian national who raped a Dutch woman in Dublin city centre last year and threatened to kill her and her boyfriend has been jailed for 10 years by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court.

Jaroslavs Goncarovs (aged 25) a security company operative, with an address at Cherry Avenue, Swords who

lived and worked in Latvia as a policeman before coming to Ireland in 2005 raped the victim orally and vaginally some 12 times during an ordeal in which she believed she would die.

He was arrested in a totally naked state in the apartment after the woman's companion escaped via a window ledge to raise the alarm with the assistance of residents in another apartment

Detective Garda Anthony Collins told Mr Paul Greene BL, prosecuting, that gardai could hear the woman cry for help when they banged on the apartment door before forcing it to gain entrance. Goncarovs then tried to push the bedroom door against the gardai who arrested him.

Det Gda Collins said he had gained entry to the building by following another foreign party who opened the door with their key but who then became concerned at him following them and didn't go directly to their own apartment. It wasn't clear how he got into the victims' apartment.

Goncarovs pleaded guilty to one charge each of rape, oral rape and threatening to kill or cause injury to a woman and her male companion on October 15, 2006. He had no previous convictions.

Mr Justice Carney noted what he described as the "calculated manner" used by Goncarovs to get into the building. He had terrorised the couple to such an extent that the woman's boyfriend felt compelled to escape to get help and had committed "about 12 outrages" on her while making believable threats to kill her.

He measured sentence at the 15 years mark on the scale available to him and took into account Goncarovs' guilty plea which was of major assistance to the couple, that he had a history of work and came to Ireland to earn money to send back home.

Mr Justice Carney directed that Goncarovs be certified for registration as a sex offender and that he should undergo six years post-relief supervision.