A Kildare bouncer has been jailed for five years by Mr Justice Moriarty for raping a young man. Philip Sullivan (33), of Lourdesville, Kildare, was found guilty on January 15th by a Central Criminal Court jury of two charges arising out of the incident. The jury took 45 minutes to reach unanimous verdicts after a three-day trial.
Sullivan had denied sexually assaulting the victim on February 5th, 1994. He told the jury the 23-year-old man had approached him and consented to sexual activity. He said he fancied the man but when he tried to have anal sex with him he seemed uncomfortable so he stopped. The victim then ran off.
Sullivan, who worked part-time in the Leinster Arms pub in Kildare, also told the jury he was bisexual. He said the victim told him he had previous sexual experience with other young men. "I felt he had gone beyond something he was used to," Sullivan said.
He claimed in a previous incident the victim was drunk and had spoken to him in a pub toilet about the size of his penis. He had also shown it to him. On the night of the incident, the young man sat talking to him as he tried to start his car.
"I asked if he was coming across to the lane at the courthouse and he just said `yes'. A lot of people in the town knew the way I was. The way he was talking and coming on to me I thought he did, too," Sullivan said.
The victim had told the jury earlier that Sullivan lured him to Courthouse Lane on the pretext of seeing the cells. Sullivan claimed to him that he was so well known he had the courthouse keys.
When they went down the lane, Sullivan kissed and fondled him, forced oral sex between them, and then tried to rape him anally. He ran off and went directly to the Garda station.