A POLISH man who subjected his friend to a horrific sexual assault during which he handcuffed her and made her wear a dog collar has been sentenced to 15 years with the final three suspended.
The 32-year-old pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to two counts of rape, one count of aggravated sexual assault and one count of false imprisonment on September 15th last.
The court heard the victim woke to find the man placing handcuffs on her after he had spent the evening at her home.
Prosecuting counsel Paddy McCarthy said the two friends had spent the evening in the woman’s Dublin flat, chatting and eating. He said toxicology tests confirmed they only had one or two drinks each. At some stage in the evening, the man realised he had missed his bus and it was agreed he would stay the night.
“They were both in relationships at the time, and there was no invitation to sexual contact,” Mr McCarthy said.
Before he got into bed the woman saw him take some tablets. Counsel said it later emerged these were for “sexual purposes”.
Later that night, the woman awoke to find him placing handcuffs on her. For the next two to three hours he repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted the victim in her bedroom and the living-room.
During the attack, he took a knife from her kitchen and threatened her with it. He also forced her to wear a dog collar, used a vibrator on her and took photos of her on his mobile phone.
At one stage during the assault he fell asleep with the woman handcuffed to him.
As he was leaving, he threatened that if she told anyone there would be consequences for her family in Poland.
When he was arrested two days later, he was carrying a large kitchen knife, handcuffs and gloves in his backpack. He denied any wrongdoing during his subsequent Garda interviews and said the two had merely slept next to each other for the night.
He entered a guilty plea last March, a number of weeks before the trial was due to go ahead.
During the attack the victim was “terrified, felt defenceless and humiliated and thought she was going to get hurt or killed”, the court heard.
Her relationship with her boyfriend, which had been good up until the incident, broke down a number of weeks later. She had trouble sleeping and was unable to go into the flat alone. She changed the locks and always kept her bedroom door locked.
Counsel said the Director of Public Prosecutions regarded the offence with a “higher level of seriousness” because of the duration of the attack, the fact there was an interval during which the man slept and the specific circumstances of humiliation.
Padraig Dwyer, defending, acknowledged the incident was “very traumatic and deeply distressing” but asked the court to take into consideration his client’s “deep regret and remorse”.
He asked Mr Justice Paul Carney to consider his client’s lack of previous convictions in Ireland and his good employment record here in the construction industry.
Mr Justice Carney said the attack had a “catastrophic” effect on the victim who did not attend the sentence hearing as she never wants to see her attacker again. He said the man’s humiliation of and threats to his victim were factors in his decision, as well as the fact that he took medication to aid him in the rape.
The judge suspended the last three years of the sentence on the condition the man keep away from the victim. He imposed a seven-year post-release supervision order which will be suspended if the man returns to Poland.