Man jailed for 5yrs over assault on Tinder date
A MAN has been jailed for five years for a sexual assault on a woman he met on the dating site Tinder.
Paul Flaherty, 30, was found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court last December of sexually assaulting a woman at his home in August 2015.
The incident took place while his parents were in the next-door bedroom.
Mr Justice Michael White said yesterday Flaherty’s behaviour on the night was “disgusting” and he was satisfied this event had a “very serious impact” on the victim.
The judge noted the woman had made it clear to Flaherty, of Kiltipper Avenue, Tallaght, South Dublin, she was not interested in sexual contact but he ignored that request.
He said the woman’s integrity for her body was “sacrosanct” and this was a “very serious sexual assault” which could not be described as minor.
The court accepted the sexual assault was not pre-meditated.
In her victim impact statement, the former civil servant said her life would never be the same again since Flaherty, a man “twice” her size, sexually assaulted her.
She said: “It shouldn’t matter what clothes I was wearing, how I wore my hair or what I said. On that night, this man abused my trust, preyed upon my naivety and annihilated my human rights.
“He left bruises on my body, which have long since faded, and he inflicted scars upon my mind that will never heal.”
She added not only had she suffered “physical and mental torture” but she had to “relive the event” during the trial where her life had been “stripped bare” and her character “assassinated.”
The victim said: “The fact another human being is capable of inflicting such horror upon another was, and still is, so profoundly shocking to me. I no longer dream of raising children because the world seems so sinister now”.
The woman said every “unfamiliar man” now had the potential to be a “predator” and she felt forced to give up her job as she could not concentrate on her work.
I no longer dream of raising children.. the world seems sinister
VICTIM
IN IMPACT STATEMENT