'I don't feel safe anywhere': Cork woman sexually assaulted by intruder feared he would rape her daughter
Detective Garda Paul Cullen gave evidence of the attack on the woman and on her daughter, who were falsely imprisoned at their home during the attack at about 5am on January 12. Picture: Larry Cummins
A West Cork woman who was being sexually attacked by an intruder at her home in the early hours of the morning feared what he would do to her teenage daughter, and when she got the chance she struck the attacker on the head with a hurley.
Detective Garda Paul Cullen gave evidence of the attack on the woman and on her daughter, who were falsely imprisoned at their home during the attack at about 5am on January 12.
The devastating impact this had on the 38-year-old and on her daughter was outlined in victim impact reports, where the woman said it had affected every day of her life to the point where she had “very little faith left in humanity because you don’t know what anyone is capable of”.
She said the devastating impact had been aggravated by hearing “horrible nasty rumours about victim-shaming” in her locality.
Her daughter, who is in her early teens, and was the injured party referred to in other charges of assault causing harm and false imprisonment, said she found it so horrible to think about what happened on the night that: “I thought of taking my own life.”
Det Garda Cullen of the West Cork Protective Services Unit said the mother and daughter had watched TV in a double bed and fallen asleep together after 11pm, only to be woken by the intruder at about 5am.
“When [the woman] opened her eyes, she saw a male in the room and she began to scream and kick her legs. During the struggle, he digitally penetrated her vagina and anus, rubbing her vagina with his fingers, and this lasted 20 to 30 seconds. She was fighting with him, looking for something to hit him with.
“She picked up a pint glass but this was dropped to the floor. She was punched on the side of the head. She thought he was going to rape her daughter. He held his foot to the door, preventing [the daughter] from escaping,” Det Garda Cullen said.
"The teenager did manage to get out on to the stairs and the mother followed him, picking up a hurley in the room. The male was on the second step of the stairs. She gave him a blow to the top of the head with the hurley and he fell. She chased him from the house."
The teenager first got to the safety of a neighbour’s house, saying over and over: “Somebody help my mam.” When her mother emerged from the house, she was hysterical and looking for her daughter. Gardaí found the accused man hiding in bushes and he was arrested.
Donal O’Sullivan, senior counsel, said the defendant pleaded guilty as early as he possibly could. He said the defendant lived a normal life to the age of 31, but within a period of 14 months, the offences at the centre of his case, and an earlier rape in another part of the country, for which he is serving a sentence of over 10 years, occurred.
“He is very remorseful and he wants me to express his deep remorse. He understands how terrible his actions were.”
Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford adjourned sentencing until January 23, 2026, at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork.
The 38-year-old victim said: “I don't feel safe anywhere. I am now terrified of the dark, not something I had ever experienced or understood before. I am terrified getting into my car in the dark, checking to see if there is a man following me or hiding in my car. I am scared all the time now.
“I am intimidated by men. I don't feel comfortable in myself. I don't trust anyone as I have very little faith left in humanity, because all I can think is you never really know what anybody is capable of.
"I don't even want to think about or share with anyone how I physically feel sick, dirty, and ashamed, violated and want to puke when I think about what happened to me in front of my daughter.
"There is no amount of showering I can do to make myself feel clean again. I feel disgusted and don't feel my body is my own, that a part of me has been taken and I don't know will I ever feel normal again after that.
"Something has changed in me forever and I feel so sad that this has happened. All I try to do is get through the days as best as I can and stay strong for [daughter].
"But the part that breaks me the most out of all this, is that the safety a parent gives their child has been taken away from me. When I tell [her] things like: ‘Try not to worry that would never happen’, she just replies: 'You said no one would ever break into our house, and that happened’, so now I can't even comfort my daughter and make her feel safe.
“I can't give her the basic sense of protection she deserves from her mother. It is the worst feeling in the world.”
Her daughter said: “I can't walk on my own in the dark without get a really hot feeling in my heart like there's something bad about to happen or has already happened. I can't close windows or doors when it's dark outside because of the fear someone's waiting for me out there.
“Now I don't feel safe in my own house, so I can't have friends over and/or for sleepovers, I can't sleep at my friends' houses. When people say everything is going to be okay and nothing is ever going to happen, I automatically assume that what they're saying is all lies because something bad did happen. Something so unexpected that I don't believe any promises that I'm safe anymore.
“What I have experienced has been so life-changing to the point that I have considered taking my own life, thinking that I would feel so horrible and that I was so scared I couldn't live with the memories of that night.”
- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.
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