18 years jail for ‘primal, brutal’ sex attacker
She grabbed the blade and screamed
A VICIOUS sex attacker who carried out ‘primal and brutal’ assaults on three women has been jailed for 18 and a half years.
The remorseless thug, described by a judge as ‘clearly a dangerous man’, dragged his first victim down and punched her.
He tied up another victim before sexually assaulting her and held a hunting knife to the third woman.
The 34-year-old is such a threat that even when released he must spend the following nine years under curfew and tell gardaí where he is. Judge Pauline Codd sentenced him to 22 years, and said she would only suspend the last four if he gets treatment in jail.
All his victims were attacked around Clondalkin in west Dublin. His first was walking home from a night out in 2011, when the Eastern European, who cannot be named for legal reasons, dragged her to the ground and sexually assaulted her.
She got away, but he caught her and punched her repeatedly around the face. His second victim was walking home late at night on September 3, 2015, when he came up behind her, put a leather belt around her neck and pulled her backwards to the ground. He wrapped duct tape around her face and hands and sexually assaulted her.
He then attacked Ruth Maxwell in broad daylight, in the early hours of May 16, 2016, as she walked along Knockmeenagh Lane to the nearby Luas.
He held a hunting knife to her, grabbed her around the neck and pulled her backwards. Ms Maxwell, who waived her right to anonymity, told the court she was so terrified he would slit her throat, she grabbed the blade, cutting tendons in three fingers. But when she screamed he panicked and ran off.
Ms Maxwell told the court: ‘At one point I thought I would never stop crying. I am frightened of so many things now. I’m especially frightened for my daughter and granddaughter.
‘Before the attack I was optimistic but now if I haven’t heard from my daughter for a day I jump into fear and all the awful things that could have happened to her.’
She said: ‘My spirit is broken and I’m afraid of people and crowds. The physical and emotional hurt and pain has continued for two years and will probably continue to manifest itself in some form daily for the rest of my life.’
After a three-week trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, a jury of 11 men unanimously found the man, who has lived and worked in Ireland since 2008, guilty. Judge Codd told how the attacks became more violent as they went on, they were premeditated and he has shown no remorse. She imposed consecutive sentences of eight years, nine and a half years and five years, suspending four on condition he completes a sex offender programmes in custody.
She also imposed a nine-year period of post-release supervision on condition that he obey any curfew set by the Probation Services, notify gardaí of his residence, and keep a travel log of all journeys. The court imposed a temporary ban on naming him for legal reasons.
During a lengthy sentence hearing he sat impassively. He has been in custody since his arrest in June 2016.