Woman raped by partner as she slept criticises sentence

A woman whose former boyfriend raped and sexually assaulted her when she slept has criticised the suspended sentence handed down to him on Monday.

Niamh Ní Domhnaill, who waived her right to anonymity after the trial, said she could not understand the seven year suspended sentence handed down to Magnus Meyer Hustveit.

“I heard the words but I don’t think that it sank in because the judge was very deliberate and he spoke for quite a while and he kept repeating seven years,” she said.

Hustveit (25)pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one count of rape and one count of sexual assault between 2011 and 2012.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Ms Ní Domhnaill (28) said she never expected Hustveit to receive a lengthy sentence "because that's the norm for the Irish criminal justice system".

“I expected that he would at least spend some nominal time in prison that was representative of what he has taken away from me. I would feel like I lost three years of my life,” she said.

“It certainly has taken three years away from my life. I don’t want to give him, and I suppose anyone in my position, you don’t want to give your abuser any more power by using words like destroy but undeniably, as I said in my victim impact statement, I’m a completely changed person.”

The full extent of the offences only emerged after the Norwegian wrote to Ms Ní Domhnaill and told her he had been using her “body for my gratification” for nearly a year.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said it was a very exceptional case. He said he had to consider the fact that there would be no rational case but for the confessions of the accused.

Ms Ni Domhnaill said that she has lost her faith in the Irish criminal justice system and said the onus should not lie with the victim of the crime to speak out.

“I would always believe in morality and justice and if there’s proper procedure, you always follow that. It’s very hard to have confidence or hope in the criminal justice system in Ireland. This is one example of many,” she said.