Sentencing adjourned in Cork rape case

Sentencing has been adjourned in the case of two men who took part in the gang rape of a woman they picked up in their van on the outskirts of Cork city three years ago.

Mr Justice Paul Carney adjourned sentencing this afternoon on both men, aged 21 and 19, until Thursday at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork.

The 21-year-old man had been convicted of sexual assault and attempted rape but was cleared of oral rape of the woman at a location in Co Cork on September 13th, 2009.

The 19-year-old man had been convicted of sexual assault, attempted rape and oral rape of the woman on the same occasion while he had earlier pleaded to stealing her car.

Today, the court heard a victim impact statement from the 34-year-old victim.

The woman described the night she found herself in the van with the accused after she got separated from friends on a night out as the scariest experience of her life.

"I was terrified, so terrified that I don't think it sank in .... I knew what was being done to me was bad but I knew that they could do something even worse to me," she said.

"I was literally afraid for my life .... I don't know if I will ever really feel safe again," she said, adding she is now hypervigilant and finds it difficult to relax if she's somewhere new.

She said it was horrible for the defence to say that she had consented to what happened to her and thereby suggest that she would engage in consensual sex with random strangers.

"Some of the comments being made about me (during the trial) made me feel as if I was being attacked again but in a different way," she said in her statement.

The woman said telling her family what had happened to her was one of the hardest things she ever had to do and no parents should have to hear that about their daughter.

Hearing the verdict of guilty from the jury helped but when the families of the accused began to riot in the court after the verdict in November, she thought they were targetting her.

She said the experience has had a hugely traumatic effect on her life as it had stopped her from getting close to people as she feels she would have to tell them what happened to her.

"I hate that I'm seen as a victim ... I'm still the same person I was but I know that people when they hear what happened to me, they change towards me. It has marked my life."

Mr Justice Paul Carney remanded both accused in custody for sentence on the multiple charges at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork at 2pm on Thursday.

Security was extremely tight at the Washington Courthouse in Cork for today's hearing, with uniformed officers backed up by armed members of the Regional Support Unit in court.