Courts

‘You used me and discarded me like a piece of rubbish’: Man jailed for raping woman as she slept

Court hears delivery driver (54) took advantage of woman and then threw her out of his home while she was dazed and in pain

28/06/2012 - News - The enterance to Mountjoy Prison - general View - Stock Photo - GV - Photo: David Sleator/THE IRISH TIMES
The judge ordered that the sentence be deferred until August 1st, when the man is to surrender himself to the Irish Prison Service at Mountjoy Prison. Photograph: The Irish Times
Isabel Hayes
Mon Jul 22 2024 - 16:10

A delivery driver who “coldly and calculatedly” raped a woman while she slept has been jailed for seven years.

The 54-year-old Dublin man behaved in a “monstrous way” when he took advantage of the woman, who he had met on a dating website, before throwing her out of his house without any regard for her welfare when she was “dazed” and physically injured, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring said while sentencing the man on Monday.

The judge handed down a sentence of eight years with the final year suspended. She ordered that the sentence be deferred until August 1st, when the man is to surrender himself to the Irish Prison Service at Mountjoy Prison.

The man was found guilty by a Central Criminal Court jury of anally raping the woman at his home address on a date between January 10th and 11th, 2020 following a trial last February. Ms Justice Ring ordered that reporting restrictions preventing him from being named should remain in place for legal reasons.

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Det Garda Bevin Meaney told the court that the woman, aged in her late 40s, met the man on a dating website and they chatted for a couple of weeks before agreeing to meet up at a Dublin hotel.

The court heard the initial date in the hotel went well, so the woman agreed to go home with the man to watch a movie. When the night got stormy, he suggested she stay the night and provided her with pyjamas and a dressing gown.

The court heard the woman, who was a nervous driver, accepted the invitation but made it clear that there would be no sexual activity. When it became clear she would not be driving, the man offered her some gin, which she drank.

The court heard the woman had one drink and was not sure if she had a second. The court heard she was getting drunk when the man suggested they go to bed and cuddle. She again made it clear nothing sexual would happen between them.

She fell asleep and woke up to a “searing pain” before realising the man was raping her. She was in a state of undress and said she repeatedly asked him to stop, but he continued. The woman passed out and then woke to find the light on and the accused pulling the bed clothes off her. She again felt pain and asked him to stop. She said the next thing she remembered was the man roaring at her to get up and get out of his house.

The woman left the house in a state of confusion, with no shoes. She got into her car and was sitting there crying when the man came out and threw her boots in through the window.

She drove away but hit some speed bumps and her car gave out on the motorway due to a flat tyre. She was helped by a taxi driver who took her home for free before she contacted a friend who came to help her. She went to gardaí and a sexual assault treatment centre later that day and the man was arrested. He has no previous convictions.

The court heard that the woman had bruising to her body and blood tests revealed no alcohol but the presence of opioids in her body. The woman had been taking a cough medicine which would not have contained opioids, but gardaí found medicine in the man’s fridge that he was not able to account for.

Ciaran O’Loughlin SC, defending, said his client does not accept the verdict of the jury.

In her victim impact statement, read out in court by the investigating garda, the woman described how she is now a “shell” of her former self following the rape.

“You used me and discarded me like a piece of rubbish,” she said.

She said she was shocked that the man was given the “privilege of sorting out his affairs” ahead of sentencing and was not taken into custody. She said the trial process was extremely difficult and that she felt like she was the one on trial.

Sentencing the man, Ms Justice Ring said the woman “did nothing more than put her trust in someone who abused her and that trust”.

She said the man “coldly and calculatedly took advantage of the woman when she was asleep, ignored the issue of consent, was found guilty of anal rape and will be a sexual offender for the rest of his life”.