SOAP STAR’S RAPE SHAME
Former Ros na Run actor sexually assaulted woman, 20, in his van
SHAMED ex-ros na Run actor Garrett Phillips has been convicted of sexually assaulting a woman.
The 46-year-old was found guilty of orally raping the then 20-year-old while she slept in his van in 2015.
The defendant, who starred as Dr Cathal in the TG4 soap, said he wanted to “unreservedly apologise” for his behaviour.
A FORMER Ros na Run actor was yesterday convicted of orally raping a woman who fell asleep as he was giving her a lift home.
Garrett Phillips, 46, was found guilty of sexually assaulting the then 20-year-old in Galway in the early hours of November 5, 2015.
The defendant, who starred as Dr Cathal in the TG4 soap, had pleaded not guilty but yesterday a lawyer said his client wished to “unreservedly apologise for his behaviour”.
His victim told the Central Criminal Court the trial made her feel like the rape was her fault.
The woman, who is now 23, said in her statement she felt like she was being “attacked” and blamed for being young and vulnerable.
She added she had been very sociable, successful in sports and doing well in her studies before the assault.
The woman said: “I was high-achieving. My life was a train on a track in the right direction.”
She added she is now a changed person, that she has questioned her will to live and started to “feel emotions that were foreign to me”.
The woman said the court process, during which she had to sit inches away from her attacker, was one of the hardest things she has ever had to do. She added she was forced to speak about something painful and made to feel like a liar when giving her evidence over two days.
Det Gda Evelyn Barratt told the court Phillips, of St Mary’s Terrace, Taylor’s Hill in Galway, approached the woman as she sat alone and upset on a park bench and offered her a lift home.
She fell asleep and when she woke up, Phillips was no longer in the driver’s seat but standing over her and performing a sex act. The detective said the woman reacted strongly, got out of the van, memorised the registration and ran to a nearby home for help.
During the trial, the jury heard Phillips claimed to gardai it was a consensual encounter which had started off “very tender” and felt “chemical”.
But yesterday his barrister Barry White submitted Phillips wished to make an apology.
Mr White said his client, who was playing the role of Frank Sinatra in a West End show, did not inform his wife about the matter until the evening before his trial last month.
Justice Eileen Creedon adjourned sentencing until July.
She ordered a Probation Service report and remanded Phillips on continuing bail.
CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT
I was highachieving. My life was a train in the right direction VICTIM