A MAN who raped a woman in her home after meeting her for the first time the previous day has been sentenced to nine years at the Central Criminal Court.
Seán Finn (42), of Colehill, Kinnegad, Co Westmeath, pleaded guilty to rape on May 15th last.
Mr Justice Paul Carney said the rape of a woman in her home, “where she is entitled to rely on safety and sanctuary”, is particularly aggravating. He noted Finn had “insinuated” himself into her house and that the attack involved an “element of stalking”.
Mr Justice Carney took into account Finn’s lack of previous convictions and guilty plea and suspended the final three years of the term. He also declared him a sex offender.
Finn met the then 26-year-old woman the previous night after he joined a group she was in who were drinking in a Donegal hotel.
He stayed with the group when they had breakfast the following morning and went back to the woman’s house when she and her companion took a taxi there.
Finn later got a taxi with the woman and her friend who were going on to another pub but he got dropped off at hospital to attend for an appointment. He then turned up at the pub where the women were and arrived back at her house later that afternoon.
Det Sgt Michael Carroll told Mary Ellen Ring, prosecuting counsel, that the woman ordered food to be delivered to her house that afternoon and thought a knock to the door was the delivery man. She saw it was Finn and refused to answer the door.
When the food arrived a short time later Finn was still there and he invited himself in. He had bought food himself and the two ate together before he leaned in to kiss the woman. She pushed him away but he kissed her again, more aggressively and she bit his tongue causing him to bleed.
Det Sgt Carroll said Finn was on top of the woman on the couch but she managed to slide out from under him on to the floor. He grabbed for her and pulled her clothes down and she banged her head in the resulting struggle. The woman grabbed a photo frame and hit Finn twice on the head, again causing him to bleed. She noticed he had exposed himself and he raped her.
Det Sgt Carroll said Finn left the house leaving his bloodied shirt behind.
The woman called gardaí who contacted the hotel the group had been in the night before. They viewed CCTV footage and arrested Finn at his ex-wife’s home later that day.
Ms Ring read out the woman’s victim impact report in which she described being “very disturbed” by the event. She had always been “outgoing, independent and very trusting” but “he came to my home, took advantage of my trusting nature and raped me”.
She said her personality has since changed and she now “has a short fuse, is irritable and easily upset”.
“The most personal part of my human life has been degraded and demeaned,” the woman said.
The woman described how she had been attacked in her home which had “previously felt like a safe place”.
Det Sgt Carroll agreed with Brendan Grehan, defending counsel, that Finn had said, “I am guilty, boys”, when questioned about the rape and had asked about the woman’s welfare.