Judge accuses DPP of not acting against rapists' threats

A Central Criminal Court judge has criticised the Director of Public Prosecutions for failing to take additional proceedings …

A Central Criminal Court judge has criticised the Director of Public Prosecutions for failing to take additional proceedings against rapists who threaten their victims.

Mr Justice Carney made his comments after a primary school teacher claimed a man who raped her had told her she was "f..king dead" as she entered the court yesterday. The woman added: "No matter what prison sentence he gets, he will come after me, I'm sure of that."

The 27-year-old man, who had previously had a relationship with the woman, was jailed for six years after pleading guilty to raping her at her south Dublin home on May 27th, 1997.

Mr Justice Carney said that in the 150 rape cases that come before the Central Criminal Court every year, the DPP has prosecuted only one rapist for threatening his victim, even though threats were involved in most cases where the rapist and victim previously did not know each other.

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He said that if the rapist in this case had made threats, it was "a grave crime."

He added that it was not the practice of the DPP to take cases of this nature, even though the Oireachtas had recently introduced legislation that allowed for a 10-year sentence for making such threats.

Earlier the victim told prosecuting counsel, Mr Anthony Sammon SC, that she had not intended to give evidence until she was threatened as she entered the courtroom that morning. She claimed she and her sister were standing outside the court when the accused walked past and made his comments "to her face".

She said she would continue her work as a teacher but feared the accused would "come after her" when released from prison.

Cross-examined by the defence counsel, Mr Cormac Quinn, she agreed that the accused was handcuffed to a prison officer at the time of the alleged threat. When it was put to her that two prison officers were willing to give evidence that they did not hear the accused make any threats, she replied: "Why would I get up here and say that? He looked at me and he said it."

She said she did not feel any safer because the man has applied to serve his sentence in England.

Mr Justice Carney said he was not going to "start a trial" on the allegations of threats being made to the victim and said he would consider the rape case in isolation. He added that gratuitous violence was used in the offence, and the accused had since been "in denial" about it.