A Dublin man has been found guilty in the Central Criminal Court of aggravated sexual assault on a Kildare woman he had offered to drive home almost five years ago.
Niall Healy (30), Palmerstown Woods, Clondalkin, was also convicted of falsely imprisoning the now 24-year-old woman, sexually assaulting her and assault causing her harm on the same occasion, on July 20th, 2001, on the outskirts of a Co Kildare town.
Mr Justice Barry White remanded Healy in custody for sentence and certified him for registration as a sexual offender. He also directed the preparation of a victim impact report. The jury returned its unanimous verdict on day five of the hearing after an hour and 25 minutes.
Brendan Grehan SC, prosecuting, said Healy had a previous conviction for rape for which he had received a 12-year sentence.
The woman told Mr Grehan that she was 19 when she was assaulted by Healy, whom she met in the early morning while looking for the home of a female acquaintance in a housing estate. She wanted to contact her boyfriend but her phone wasn't working.
Healy and some other men arrived in a taxi and they got talking. He told her he was the woman's brother and he allowed her to use his mobile phone to contact her boyfriend. Her boyfriend told her she should go to her own home because he was tired after being at a function and had to go to work a few hours hence.
Healy also spoke to her boyfriend and it was agreed he would drive her home. She described how Healy parked the car by a canal but she said she had become nervous before he parked and had held on to his mobile phone.
Healy moved over to her and after trying to kiss her, put his hand up her skirt. She told Mr Grehan she was screaming and telling Healy to stop. During this assault, she pressed the l key on the phone to redial the last number called, which would have been her boyfriend's. Tape recordings of three resulting distressed voicemails were played to the jury during the trial.
She got out of the car after struggling with Healy and walked along the canal while he drove alongside her apologising and telling her to get back into the car. When she refused to get back in, he sped off and she continued to walk towards a bridge.
She saw him again at the bridge and he told her he had crashed his car and it was her fault. Healy grabbed her by the wrist, pulled her under the bridge and forced her to the ground where he tried to force her to perform oral sex on him.
She agreed if he let go of her wrist but she attempted to run away. Healy grabbed her by the neck, pulled her back down and told her he would drown her in the canal if she continued to scream.
The woman described how she managed to run away and bang on the door of a nearby house. The householder let her in but stopped Healy from following her. She was cut and bruised everywhere, had two black eyes and a suspected broken pelvis which turned out not to be so.
The gardaí, who found her in a very distressed state, were called.
Her boyfriend gave evidence of hearing her screaming in the voice mail messages left on his mobile phone. "I could hear him talking in the car. I knew something was wrong," adding that it was his girlfriend's voice.