A convicted rapist who was extradited from the US in August has been jailed for seven years for his attack on a woman in Carlow eight years ago.
Michael Christian Moran (29), of Woodgrove, Tullow Road, absconded to the US six years ago just before he was due to be sentenced for raping the then 27-year-old woman in a residential area of the town as she walked home from a hen-party on July 18th, 1999.
The court heard the victim was attacked from behind by Moran while she walked home.
She called out for help when he raped her and Moran told a woman who came to her assistance that he was the victim's boyfriend but ran off before gardai got to the scene.
Moran originally denied the rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment of the woman but then pleaded guilty on July 24th, 2001 to the crime on day-two his trial following legal argument in the absence of the jury.
While living in Boston Moran successfully started a roofing business and had relationships with two women who gave character evidence on his behalf.
Mr Justice Paul Carney who directed that Moran be registered as a sex offender and to undergo five years post release supervision said : "The saddest thing from his point of view is that if he had not gone on the run this case would be over for him by now."
The judge described Moran's comment in his evidence that he had hoped his victim would have got on with her life as "beneath contempt". He said that his guilty plea had been negated "by the continuing effect" the rape had on his victim whose impact evidence he said he had found very helpful.
He said it must have been very difficult for the victim to hear that Moran had become a successful businessman in the USA while she continued to suffer from his crime without closure to the case.
In a victim impact statement, the woman said it made her "feel sick to my stomach" that she had to live with the situation without closure as a result of Moran absconding but that "if he hears from me he might feel some remorse" for what he had put her and her family through.
"I was shocked at what happened, shocked at having to give a statement to the gardaí, shocked at having to hand over my clothes and having to go through a medical examination," she said.
She said she woke up the following day at home "black and blue with bite marks all over me" but had learned to cope because she had to learn. Giving evidence in the trial was "the hardest thing I ever had to do; if he was sorry why did he put me through this?".
She said she had hoped at the scheduled 2001 sentence date that it would all be over but Moran had gone to USA the night before and everytime the case was called "I had to live it all over again."
Moran said in evidence that he felt "immense shame and sorrow" for his crime. "I will always be tormented by what I did and hope today will bring closure."
He said he absconded because he felt threatened for his life and would now find it "extremely distressing to consider life without my children".
"I am fighting hard against depression and I'm truly and deeply sorry for my victim," he said.
Moran was arrested sometime after it was broadcast on radio and television in Boston that the FBI were looking for him.
Mr Justice Carney directed that the transcripts of all the hearings in this case should be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions so that an investigation could be carried out "as to whether or not this court was misled in evidence given to it concerning his whereabouts".