Four years for Kerry man found guilty of rape

A MAN who “blacked out” after drinking and says he does not recall raping a woman who was “like a sister” to him has been jailed for four years.

The 28-year-old man pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to raping the woman at his home in County Kerry on October 30, 2016.

The court heard he had spent part of his childhood living with the woman’s family.

The rape occurred when the woman was visiting the man’s home with her family. She awoke in the bedroom she was sharing with her children to find him having sex with her.

The woman told the court in her victim impact statement that she had completely lost trust in people, especially in males and in her own judgment. She said her whole life had changed, she felt unsafe and suffered nightmares.

She said she rarely goes out, has lost friendships and is overprotective of her children.

The woman said her parents had taken the accused man into their home and cared for him, so for him to do something like this, “hurts us beyond belief.”

She told the court that her children being present during the rape hurt her the most. “To know they were there for the worst moment in my life is horrible,” she said.

Passing sentence on Monday, Mr Justice Michael White said it was a tragic case involving a “heinous offence”.

“The impact on (the victim) is horrific,” he said, adding: “Not only has he destroyed (her) life, he has riven apart two families.” He said the man’s own family and children had been affected by his offending, which he accepted was “out of character”.

He handed down a five-year sentence but suspended the final year on a number of conditions.

A prosecuting garda told Paul Greene SC, prosecuting, that the woman, her husband and children had come to visit the accused man and his wife for the weekend. They were staying at his home, and after socialising that night, the woman came home before her husband.

She went to the room they were staying in with their children and fell asleep in bed. She woke feeling a “hard push inside her” and found the accused man having sex with her from behind.

The woman jumped out of bed and the accused left. She later had consensual sex with her husband when he came back.

The woman spoke to the accused man’s wife the following morning and they went to the gardaí together. She was taken to a sexual assault treatment unit and intimate swabs were taken.

The accused man told gardai that he had been drinking extensively that night and had a “black out.”

Forensic analysis revealed a mixed DNA profile of the woman, the accused man and her husband.

The garda agreed with Michael Bowman

SC, defending, the incident was genuinely out of character for the accused and that he never denied the allegations but said he had no recollection of it. He agreed the man had drank a considerable amount.

The accused man told gardaí that he had no recollection of the incident and said he couldn’t imagine it as the woman was “like a sister”.

Mr Bowman said his client wished to offer an unreserved apology to the woman and her family.

He said the accused man’s young life had been marred by loss, and he spent some time living with the woman’s family. He asked the court to take into account the value of his client’s guilty plea.

Counsel said the accused man had drank more than he usually did on this occasion and had stopped drinking since the date of this offence. He acknowledged it was a day too late for the woman but asked the court to take it into account.