A 24-year-old man has been jailed for seven years for raping his then girlfriend's friend while the three of them slept in the one bed.
He was convicted on March 25th last by a Central Criminal Court jury which took less than 1½ hours to find him guilty on day four of the trial.
The man, a father of two from a north Dublin suburb, had pleaded not guilty to raping the teenage victim on January 29th, 2001. He cannot be named to protect her identity.
Mr Justice Barry White, who also directed that the man's name be added to the register of sex offenders, suspended the final three years of the sentence. He noted the defendant had no convictions prior to this matter.
Prosecuting counsel said the victim was not in court for "unavoidable reasons" and did not wish to give evidence in relation to the effect the crime had on her. The victim impact report indicated she felt the trial was a burden on her.
Mr Justice White told the defendant he felt the seven-year sentence with three years suspended was the appropriate sentence in his personal circumstances. He said he did not - and could not - hold it against him that he had pleaded guilty initially before changing his plea and undergoing the trial. He recalled that the defendant initially denied there had been any sexual activity, when interviewed by gardaí, but later made admissions to the offence.
The judge said if he had remained with his initial guilty plea, his victim would not have had to endure cross-examination and listening to his account which included a claim of previous sexual activity between them.
While there was a thankful absence of violence or any act of degradation in this case, he could not, however, view it as being one in which genuine remorse had been shown.
Mr Peter Finlay SC, defence counsel, pleaded that his client had no record, before or since this case, of violence and was not a threat to the community. He had indicated he might have misread the situation with the victim and had no intention to hurt her. "His offence was an opportunistic one," Mr Finlay submitted.