Cork man gets 15 years for stabbing and raping woman after climbing into her apartment

The judge set a headline sentence of 23 years before he imposed a sentence of 16 years. He suspended the final year on strict conditions. File photo

A woman who was raped, stabbed and beaten by a stranger who climbed in her bedroom window as she slept warned the man was a “danger to society”.  

Edmund O'Sullivan, aged 32, was jailed on Tuesday for 15 years with a post-release supervision order of eight years after Mr Justice Paul McDermott said “the overall supervision of this man must be closely monitored”. 

“It is necessary to protect others in society having regard for the dangerous and escalating nature of his offending,” the judge said.

O’Sullivan had been released just 10 days prior to this incident from a three-year sentence with the final six months suspended for the stabbing of another woman in her apartment in 2022. He has 108 previous convictions, four of which are for assaults on women.

Mr Justice McDermott noted that partly suspended sentences previously failed to ensure any change in O’Sullivan’s behaviour and said it was of vital importance that he is not left at large and unsupervised in society which could lead to exposing “some future victim to a similar occurrence”.

He said it was hugely important that “these matters are addressed by those who have his custody to offer some measure of protection against further violence, particularly against women.” 

O’Sullivan, aged 32, of no fixed abode, and originally from Cork pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape, anal rape and making threats to kill or cause serious harm to the woman at her apartment in Tralee, County Kerry on March 14, 2024.

He was sleeping rough in Tralee having been released from prison 10 days earlier.

'Danger to society'

In her victim impact statement the young woman, who was described in court as exceptionally traumatised, outlined how she continues to fight to rebuild her life but part of her has been irrevocably changed.

“I did nothing to deserve this, but I was left bloodied, broken and violated,” she told the court.

She said she does not believe for one minute that O’Sullivan regrets his actions and is only sorry he was caught. She said she cannot stress enough that O’Sullivan is “a danger to society”.

The woman said she prays that justice is served not just for herself but for the safety of other women he might seek to harm.

Mr Justice McDermott said O’Sullivan’s history of violence towards women was worrying. He said the cycle of drug use, crime, prison time and then being released back into society without accommodation continued for O’Sullivan — which led to “devastating consequences for his latest victim”.

The judge noted from the woman’s victim impact statement that she “believed with every fibre in her being that if she had not fought back she would not be here today but she said the cost of surviving has been immense”.

He noted that she said that everything she had worked so hard to achieve was “stolen from her in an instant”. 

“It was the most awful attack and she suffers the most awful consequences from that,” Mr Justice McDermott said before he added that “her sense of her own personal security and wellbeing” has been impacted.

Mr Justice McDermott said:

She was sleeping and he attacked her in the most savage and degrading way and attacked her in order to secure her submission. She feared for her life.

He acknowledged that O’Sullivan had pleaded guilty and acknowledged that he had saved the woman the trauma of sitting through a trial but added that there had been “a very strong case” against him. Mr Justice McDermott accepted that O’Sullivan had written a letter of remorse.

He set a headline sentence of 23 years before he imposed a sentence of 16 years. 

He suspended the final year on strict conditions including that O’Sullivan address both his drug and alcohol addiction while in custody and continue with any treatment deemed appropriate by the Probation Service on his release from prison. The judge noted that O’Sullivan is now a registered sex offender.

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