Sex attack on woman with intellectual disabilities

A WOMAN with intellectual disabilities has said she can no longer live alone after a violent sexual assault in her Kerry home during which she was called a b***h and a c**t and had her face burned with a cigarette.

Her attacker, a 29-year-old fisherman who cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to aggravated sexual assault of the 58-year-old woman at her home on July 29, 2011.

Supt Fearghal Pattwell told how the man had briefly met the woman in a pub when she was buying cigarettes. Later, he went back to her house and asked if there was a party going on, but left when she said no.

He returned half an hour later and forced his way in, grabbed her throat and punched her in the head, banged her head off a door and a radiator before pushing her into her bedroom.

He then pulled her clothes off and had non-consensual sex with her on the floor, during which he called her a b***h and a c**t and burned her face with a cigarette.

After he left the alarm was raised but the woman was too upset to undergo an internal examination. The man was identified from DNA found on a memoriam card which gardaí remembered the victim was clutching when they arrived at the scene.

The man was arrested in September 2011 and denied being in the house at the time, but in a voluntary statement in December he claimed he had being in an ongoing consensual sexual relationship with the woman.

Before evidence was called the defence made a legal submission testing whether the victim was a person who required specialist victim interviewers. Mr Justice Hunt ruled that taped garda interviews were admissible and the man entered a plea of guilty to the count of aggravated sexual assault.

A victim impact report outlined that since the attack the victim feels unable to live on her own. The attack has had a devastating attack on her and her family and she feels frightened and feels guilty about answering the door on the night.

James O’Mahoney SC, defending, said that his client was previously a respected and valued member of the community, but had problems with binge drinking. He said his client was remorseful for his behaviour and took responsibility for it.

He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced in July.