Dating app rapist caught in sting jailed for five years

A MAN who raped a woman he had hooked up with through a dating app has been jailed for five years.

Martin Sherlock forced himself on his victim when she said no to sex without a condom. The 30-year-old, who has since lost his job and cancelled his wedding, was caught through ‘ingenious detective work’ by undercover gardaí in a sting operation.

Sherlock and his victim had arranged to meet through the Badoo dating app but she told him they could not have sex without a condom. She started to feel uncomfortable during other sexual activity and said he did not stop when she said ‘no’.

Sherlock admitted to gardaí that the woman had told him to stop after they started having sex, but said that they had already started and he wanted to keep going. Prosecuting counsel Eilis Brennan BL told the Central Criminal Court that the key issue in the case was that the victim had said no to sex without a condom.

Sherlock, of Athlumney Wood, Navan, Co. Meath, had pleaded not guilty to raping the woman at her Dublin home on August 14, 2015, but admitted stealing her phone.

Officers arrested Sherlock following a ‘sting’ operation in which gardaí arranged to meet him as he was selling a phone through DoneDeal. He told gardaí: ‘I know she said no, but we had already started.’

Yesterday, Judge Patrick McCarthy noted that the woman had previously been diagnosed with a mental illness and had stated in her victim-impact report that she kept telling herself she had ‘been an idiot’. ‘This couldn’t be further from the truth. She trusted someone and he abused her trust,’ the judge said. He said Sherlock had ‘not shown any attrition’.