OFFENDER’S LONG REIGN OF TERROR
1989 Robert Melia rapes Debbie Cole
1991 Sentenced to six years for raping Ms Cole.
1997 Carries out three aggravated sexual assaults over one-month period between dates in September and October.
1999 Sentenced to six years for the three sex attacks in 1997.
2012 Viciously assaults Elizabeth Clifford, during which he repeatedly threatens to kill her and tries to bite off her ear.
2013 He tries to cash stolen welfare cheques and about four months later, he viciously assaults and threatens to kill another woman, who has to jump out a hotel window to escape him.
2014 Sentenced to four years for assault against Ms Clifford but final 18 months suspended on condition that he be under probation supervision for 18 months.
2015 Judge Martin Nolan suspends the last three years of a ten-year sentence for assaulting the woman in the hotel on condition Melia be of good behaviour for three years after release. Melia also receives one year for having stolen welfare cheques.