A Kerry man who twice raped a 73-year-old woman after breaking into her home and leaving her “waiting for death” has been jailed for 13 years.
Anthony Hussey (26) was wearing a balaclava and dressed in dark clothing when the woman found him in her bedroom. He told her his boss was making him do it and that he did not want money.
“It’s just one thing and you are going to like it,” Hussey said, before he told the woman there were three more men outside.
She screamed and struggled with him but he pushed her to the floor and placed his hands over her mouth. He bent the woman over her bed, removed her trousers and underwear and sexually assaulted her. He then raped her both vaginally and anally.
Afterwards he said, “you enjoyed that didn’t you?” He covered her whole body with a duvet and left her house.
Hussey, of Ardshillane, Sneem, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape and anal rape at the woman’s home on September 20th, 2014.
Healing process
Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said a hallmark of the case was the woman’s immense courage and determination.” He commended her as “a deeply impressive witness” who took the stand to deliver a powerful victim impact statement as part of her healing process.
“She was violated in the vilest manner in her own home,” he added. “The intrusion makes this case stand out in its seriousness.”
In mitigation, Mr Justice McCarthy said he was considering Hussey’s “otherwise good character”, his letter of apology and, most importantly, his guilty plea. He said this entitled him to a discount to his sentence of between a quarter and a third.
He imposed a 13-year sentence which was backdated to when he went into custody in 2014. The judge also imposed a five-year post-release supervision order.
Drinking
Sergeant Michael Quirke told Tom Creed SC, prosecuting, that Hussey had been at the woman’s house earlier on the morning of the rape. She had woken to loud knocking and banging on the doors and windows of her house.
Hussey claimed he had gone there by mistake, having been drinking heavily through the night, and had gone home. He then returned, broke into her house and raped her. She called the emergency services to report the rape just before 8am that day.
Hussey was a bar manager at the time and had never come to Garda attention before or since. He was registered as a sex offender when he entered his plea last March.
In the days after the rape, Hussey told acquaintances he was “looking at time”. He told his friends he had gone to the woman’s house wearing a balaclava but said it was only a break-in and claimed he had not raped her.
His DNA was later found on a fleece the woman had been wearing. He admitted to gardaí that he had been at her home earlier that morning but said he could not remember going back afterwards.
The woman read her victim impact statement at an earlier court hearing. She said after the rape she was sobbing uncontrollably like a small child, “broken, terrorised, waiting for my death”.
Michael Bowman SC, defending, handed in a number of testimonials confirming that Hussey and his family were well thought of in the local community.