A MAN who raped and tried to strangle a minor in a graveyard before leaving her in the snow has been sentenced to 12 years.
Robert Simaitis (30), Grove Street, Roscrea, Tipperary, had pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to raping and recklessly endangering the 16-year-old girl on December 5th, 2010, in Co Tipperary.
Mr Justice Paul Carney said: “The accused stalked and attacked a 16-year-old, raped her, strangled her and left her.”
He sentenced Simaitis, a Lithuanian national, to 12 years in prison for the rape, with three years suspended, and six years for reckless endangerment, to run concurrently. He also registered him as a sex offender.
Paul O’Higgins SC, prosecuting, said the girl had been out with friends on the night. He said she gave Simaitis her number having initially refused to talk to him in a nightclub.
Garda Thomas Hanrahan said Simaitis phoned the girl after the club closed but she did not answer.
She walked home with friends. When they separated, Simaitis came behind her and tried to link arms, the garda said.
She tried to escape but he grabbed her and pulled her into a disused graveyard near a church. The temperature was minus 3 and there was snow on the ground. He said she tried to get away and shouted for help as he tried to kiss and sexually assault her.
Mr O’Higgins said Simaitis threw her to the ground and knelt over her. He then took her by the windpipe and began trying to strangle her after punching her in the face. “She was conscious and sometimes unconscious, she was drifting in and out,” he said.
The garda said the graveyard was on two sloping levels with a wooden fence in between. He said this broke and the victim fell to the lower level, over six metres below.
“It would be impossible to say she had been raped were it not for the admission by the accused as it appears she was unconscious at the time,” Mr O’Higgins said.
“The accused man indicated he left the victim rolling down the hill and didn’t wait to see if she was alive or dead.”
The garda said the attack had left the victim “reeling” and unable to walk freely around the town. The prosecution said the examining doctor found she had “very serious injuries”.
John O’Kelly SC, defending, said Simaitis had started drinking heavily in May of 2010 when his relationship had broken up and he had been denied access to his son.
The garda said he had been declared unfit to work due to his drinking.
He said Simaitis had showed remorse saying he did not know the age of the girl, “she is only 16. That is only worse now.”
Mr O’Kelly submitted a medical report on Simaitis, stating that alcohol “makes him aggressive and argumentative”.
Simaitis’s sister, who also lives in Ireland, gave evidence through an interpreter that his character had changed following the break-up. She became quite upset and found it difficult to talk.