Ros na Run rapist jailed for 6 years
pervert phillips handed 6-year sentence after twisted attack
A SICKO soap star was caged for six years yesterday for what a judge called the “callous” rape of a young woman.
Garrett Phillips, 46, who starred in Irish language drama Ros na Run, pounced when he noticed the then 20-year-old crying on a park bench.
The actor pretended to help her out, offering to bring her home and giving her his jacket.
But when she fell asleep in his van he orally raped her and later told gardai he believed it was consensual.
He was convicted after a four-day trial over the attack outside Galway city on November 5, 2015.
Phillips’ marriage later broke up and he only told his wife about the attack the night before his trial began.
Passing sentence at the Central Criminal Court, Ms Justice Eileen Creedon said there was a “predatory element” to what she described as the “callous rape” of a young woman.
She added: “She was vulnerable, alone in a park late at night and visibly upset.
“He made her feel safe by offering his jacket, kind words and a lift home, but he never brought her home.”
The judge said it was a concern Phillips still did not accept full responsibility for the offence.
She ordered he be assessed for a therapeutic programme to obtain a greater degree of understanding and insight into his offending.
The judge cited from the victim impact statement in which the woman said she had been happy and doing well at college before the attack.
The injured party added: “My life was a train on a track in the right direction.”
She is now a “changed person” and has failed to progress in university despite her best efforts.
The woman is attending counselling, taking anti-depressants and no longer takes part in sport. She said she has questioned her will to live and struggles with the feeling the rape was her fault.
The woman added the court process, during which she had to sit inches away from her attacker, was one of the hardest things she had ever had to do.
The judge said the maximum sentence for the offence was eight years but she took account of Phillips’ clean record in setting a six-year term.
She also cited letters from his siblings describing him as a devoted husband and father.
Ms Justice Creedon noted he had lost his marriage and was out of work and he had offered an apology to his family and to the victim for the “emotional impact” on her.
A probation report placed him as at low risk of re-offending.
The court heard the dad of two initially worked in his family’s business before getting into acting and had been appearing on stage in London up to his trial.
The court heard that after offering the woman a lift he asked her if she had ever seen an overview of the city lights. The woman replied she hadn’t and fell asleep. When she woke up Phillips was no longer in the driver’s seat but standing over her with his penis in her mouth. A detective said the woman got out of the van, memorised the registration and ran for help.
The jury heard Phillips, from St Mary’s Terrace in Taylor’s Hill, Galway, had told a garda the encounter had started off “very tender”. A barrister said his client wished to “unreservedly apologise for his behaviour”.
He added it was highly unlikely the accused would ever gain employment in acting again.
The prosecution said there were no exceptional circumstances in the case and other convicted people have families and experience similar problems with getting work.
The victim said she does not feel safe walking alone or sometimes in her own home.
She added: “I wasn’t afraid of anything, I was indestructible.” The woman said because of the court process taking so long and being “attacking to victims” she was made to feel the incident was her fault.
She added she lost a lot of friends and her family relationships have also suffered.
A defence lawyer said there had been “great difficulty” in getting Phillips to realise the gravity of matters and there was a lack of realisation on his part.
He asked the judge to treat the case “as some sort of halfway house between somebody who had pleaded and somebody who had fought the matter”.
A prosecution lawyer dismissed this claim and said it was a fully contested trial.
He told the judge he took issue with one testimonial, which referred to Phillips “persisting with the belief matters were consensual”.
The accused will spend four-and-ahalf years in jail due to remission.
The woman had been alone in a park late at night and visibly upset
MS JUSTICE EILEEN CREEDON YESTERDAY