Two young men who subjected a teenage student to what Mr Justice Carney described as "multi-gang-rape" lasting 90 minutes have been jailed for seven years.
Their victim suffered a broken nose and needs further surgery after an unsuccessful operation to repair it. She was walking home from a disco when grabbed from behind, dragged into a park where she was stripped naked and repeatedly raped.
Stuart O'Connor (21) originally from Killarney, Co Kerry, and with an address at Evergreen Street, Cork, and Derek O'Donovan (19) of Calderwood Heights, Donnybrook, Cork, had been searching for a prostitute when they encountered the young woman, whom they threatened with death during her ordeal.
They each pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to two charges of rape and four charges of oral rape at Kennedy Park, Victoria Road, Cork, on March 8th, 1998. A nolle prosequi was entered on other charges arising out of the same incident.
Det Sgt Eddie O'Callaghan said O'Connor came to live with an aunt in Cork after his mother died tragically when the family home burned down. His father was not supportive of him. O'Donovan was an only child from a respectable family.
Dr Brian McCaffrey told defence counsel Ms Deirdre Byrne, for O'Donovan, that he was slow as a child and didn't speak until he was four. He was in a coma for three months when six years old as a result of meningitis, and the witness believed the meningitis left him brain-damaged. He was "further back" than his 19 years of age.
Det Sgt O'Callaghan told prosecuting counsel Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC that the 19-year-old victim was home in Cork for the weekend from a Dublin college. She and a girlfriend left a disco at about 2 a.m. to go home and, when they parted, it was arranged her girlfriend would telephone her home to ensure she had arrived safely.
When she hadn't arrived home by 3 a.m. her worried parents went out searching for her without success.
O'Connor and O'Donovan had been at Zoe's nightclub and, when it closed, they went to a fast-food shop before going on to Parnell Place, which is a well-known area for prostitutes. They decided to follow the victim in the belief she was a prostitute and attacked her at Kennedy Park. She was punched in the face and threatened she would be killed if she didn't stop resisting them.
Each of them took turns to rape her and force her into oral sex after having stripped her naked.