A Limerick man who raped a French teenager has been jailed for eight years by Mr Justice Murphy at the Central Criminal Court.
Francis Goggin (33), a father of two, of Lee Estate, Limerick was convicted by a jury on December 3rd last of kidnapping, raping and committing aggravated sexual assault on the then 19-year-old French woman.
He had denied five charges of false imprisonment, anal and vaginal rape, aggravated sexual assault and assault causing harm to her between 7 p.m. on August 15th and 1 a.m. on August 16, 2003.
The jury found Goggin not guilty of anally raping the woman but guilty of the four other charges.
Mr Justice Murphy imposed concurrent six-year sentences for the false imprisonment and aggravated sexual assault convictions and three years for the assault causing harm.
Afterwards, the victim said she was not happy with the sentence which she thought was too lenient considering what she had suffered.
Earlier, she read a letter in French addressed to Goggin from the witness box, which was translated in court.
"What you have done to me is like taking someone's life away." She told Goggin that on the night he attacked her she had just asked for friendship because she wanted "a nice evening for my last night in Ireland" but she was now alone in her suffering and nobody understood her any more because of the effect of his actions.
"You tried to kill me by strangling me. Why?" She said she had felt herself dying but had tried to keep her hope up and that this wasn't easy when she felt herself dying. She had tried to protect her virginity but he raped her. She now had no boyfriend like other girls of her age and had failed her examinations because she couldn't concentrate properly. When she did try to concentrate she could feel Goggin's hands strangling her and hitting her.
She told the court her behaviour had also become very difficult for her parents and her friends and she didn't trust people anymore. She had nightmares about the rape happening again.
Mr Justice Murphy said that when Goggin was told by gardaí about the victim's injuries, he had said that he wouldn't "do that to an animal".
He still maintained his innocence and this raised the question of his attitude to the jury's verdict.
"Telling the gardaí he was sorry for her injuries does not seem to invoke any responsibility for what happened," he said.
Mr Justice Murphy said the victim had spoken "very courageously" in court and showed that Goggin's attack on her had "long repercussions".
"It has a permanent effect on the victim." He said Goggin had taken advantage of the victim and lured her to a secluded unlit area away from houses along the River Shannon on the pretext of taking her home along a shortcut and then attacked her. The court had to condemn such activities.