Judge: No credibility for the stock criminals come from

A judge has insisted criminals will get no credibility in court for the stock they come from as she jailed a man for twice raping a teenage schoolgirl.

Sentencing Richard O’Mara, aged 31, to 14 years in prison with the final two years suspended, Ms Justice Tara Burns said there had been a “sense of class” in this case, a sense that the victim was from a “good-for-nothing family” and could not be believed against “the likes of Richard O’Mara”.

She said it was “clear that the O’Maras are wealthy people and have a fine house”. But she said that was not the way things worked. The victim could leave with a sense of pride and her head held high for standing up for herself, she said, praising her as a “very brave young woman”.

O’Mara, of Walnut Avenue, Kingswood, Tallaght, Dublin, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape at Ballymulcashel, Kilmurry, Sixmilebridge, Co Clare, on October 18, 2015.

Ms Justice Burns described the offence as a “vicious, horrifying attack” in which O’Mara had used “deceit, violence, and force to rape her (the victim) in the field”.

She said O’Mara had then subjected the woman to an “even more vicious rape” in his family house.

On the day in question the victim, who was 17 at the time, was at O’Mara’s sister’s party in his family home. She got talking to O’Mara, who was then aged 27. He led her by the hand out onto a public road. He took her into a field and pushed her onto the ground, held her down, took off her trousers and underwear and raped her. The victim was crying and shaking her head and O’Mara whispered in her ear “I know you want it”.

Afterwards he told her not to tell anyone what had happened and they went back to the house to discover that most people had left. She lay down on a couch in the living room and began crying.

O’Mara came in, forced her head into the pillow, pulled her hair and told her to shut up. He then pulled off her jeans and underwear and raped her again, falling asleep after he was finished.

In her victim impact statement, the victim said O’Mara had “robbed” her of her virginity. She said she was bleeding for a week afterwards and that she hurt so much she did not want to use the toilet.

The judge there was “practically” no mitigating circumstances as there was no remorse shown and the accused maintains the rapes did not occur.