Teen rapist given three-year sentence for assault

A Dublin teenager serving a 12-year sentence for the brutal rape of a homeless woman has been given a concurrent three-year sentence for stabbing a man who let him sleep in his flat.

Mark O'Neill (aged 19) of Golden Lane, Rialto is also currently serving an eight-year sentence imposed last June for vicious robberies on four men which left one of them with serious head injuries and another with only 60% vision in his left eye.

O'Neill pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Mark Sherry (aged 37), at Ranelagh Road, Ranelagh, on May 29, 2005.

Judge Katherine Delahunt imposed a sentence of three years imprisonment to run concurrent to his other terms.

Garda Niall Connaughton told prosecuting counsel, Mr Patrick McGrath BL, that Mr Sherry was leaving an off licence on Aungier Street when he began chatting with O'Neill and they went back to Mr Sherry's flat to drink.

O'Neill asked Mr Sherry if he could stay for the night and they put a makeshift bed together. Mr Sherry retired to his own room but was awoken by O'Neill standing over him demanding money and threatening to kill him.

O'Neill lunged at him with a knife and stabbed him through his arm before leaving the flat.

Gda Connaughton said Mr Sherry was treated for lacerations to his cheek and a stab wound through his left arm. He has been left with permanent scarring to his face.

O'Neill had one minor conviction at the time of this offence but now has eight previous convictions.

Mr Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC, defending, asked Judge Delahunt to take into account that O'Neill was already serving a substantial sentence at a young age and there was scope for him to rehabilitate.

Mr Ó Lideadha said O'Neill had a very supportive family and had been a witness to a traumatic event as a child when he saw a relative attempting suicide.

O'Neill was jailed for 12 years by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court last October for raping a woman after knocking her unconscious while she slept rough on a city centre street two years ago.

O'Neill pleaded guilty to raping the then 38-year-old woman on the night of September 21-22, 2005 and to assaulting her causing her harm on the same occasion.

O'Neill had been given an eight years sentence by Judge Delahunt the previous June after he pleaded guilty to robbing four men on dates between April 2005 and January 2006.

He met three of his victims in the South Great George's Street - Dame Street area and led them to a nearby park where he punched and kicked them in the head and body before making off with their phones or wallets.

One victim was left with serious head injuries and still attends a day centre three days a week, while a Chinese national lost 40% of the sight in his left eye and is now considered legally blind.

Judge Delahunt said O'Neill's behaviour was "despicable and violent in nature" and was committed on four vulnerable men on whom "he intended to inflict the maximum damage".