A Connemara man who raped a foreign student who was walking home late at night has been jailed for six years, the final four years suspended, by Mr Justice O'Sullivan at the Central Criminal Court.
Joseph Ward (19) a labourer, with an address at Cnoc na bhFodaigh, Na Forbarcha, had drunk 12 pints of stout and five brandies during the day before the rape.
Minutes before his trial was due to start before a jury last December Ward pleaded guilty to raping the 20-year-old woman at Knocknacarragh on January 24th, 2000.
She told the court she prayed to her angel she would not be killed while he raped her.
The then 16-year-old Ward had told the woman he would have to kill her after he finished raping her with his hand over her mouth to stop her screaming.
She bluffed him by commenting: "Why? There is no problem," before dashing to a taxi and raising the alarm.
Mr Justice O'Sullivan backdated the sentence to begin from June 2001 when Ward went into custody and suspended the final four years on various conditions. He made an order that Ward's name be put on the register of sex offenders.
He noted what he called "the persuasive submission" of Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, defending, citing Ward's extreme youth when he committed the crime, his early admission of rape, his public expression of remorse and his previous good character.
Mr Justice O'Sullivan noted also that Ward was attending Alcoholics Anonymous in prison and the evidence given by his former employer that he was a good worker and timekeeper who could use his own initiative. He added that Ward had been drinking heavily with older men.