“Monster” raped family friend in public park after a party

By Eimear Dodd

A woman has described how she was a “waking corpse” after being raped by a friend’s husband in a public park after a party.  

Reading from her victim impact statement at the sentencing hearing of Aidan Kestell (55),  she spoke of the effect of the “atrocious attack” on her and her family.

The “dramatic ripple effects of sexual assault on friends and family can’t be stressed enough,” she said.

Kestell was convicted of rape after a four-day trial at the Central Criminal Court last month.

The offence took place on September 6, 2019, at Hartstown Park, Hartstown, Dublin 15. Kestell raped the woman in a park after walking her home from a party at his house.

The victim waived her right to anonymity to allow Kestell of Briarwood Lawn, Dublin 15, to be identified. Kestell has no previous convictions.

Last Friday , the woman said the sentencing hearing was an important step as it would close the “four-and-a-half year sentence I’ve served since the attack”.

“This part of my ordeal is over. Today I’m no longer a victim but a rape survivor.”

She said her partner, children and friends watched her transform afterwards into a “shell” of who she used to be.

She spoke of experiencing anxiety, irritability, paranoia, emotional numbness, and extreme worry.

She would “obsessively” check windows and doors were securely locked as she didn’t feel safe because “this dangerous man” knew where she lived.

Her whole life and routine changed in the aftermath of the attack, and her old self was gone. “She may as well have died that night; that’s how I felt,” she said.

She said, “Our beautiful, happy home was destroyed” as a “dark cloud was hanging over us”.

She spoke about experiencing nightmares and learning the “real nightmare began each morning when I had to continue with my life…I was a waking corpse”.

She said she still has gaps in the timeline and “unanswered questions” from that night that she hoped would be answered during the trial.

“Those don’t matter now. I leave them to your conscience”.

She suggested Kestell thought she wouldn’t come around, continuing, “Bet you thought you’d got away with it”.

She described him as “manipulative”, “vile” and a “compulsive liar.”

“I’ve no noun to describe you. I wouldn’t put you with any normal man,” she said, adding that he’s shown no remorse for his actions.

“I’m overjoyed your web of lies that you tried to spin has untangled…the life you once had is over”.

Addressing victims of sexual assault, she said while they may feel “so very alone”, she hoped sharing her story would help them see “you are not isolated”.

“I never thought I’d get to this part. I implore you not to give up. The silence will stop. Your voice will be heard, and you will have your day”.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt thanked the woman for her eloquent statement.

Garda Leona Bellow told Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, that the victim was a longstanding friend of Kestell’s wife and was among the guests at a party in his house on the night in question.

During the evening, Kestell walked in on her when she was in the bathroom. In her evidence during the trial, the victim said she wasn’t upset by it but thought it “a bit strange”.

When she was leaving, her friend insisted Kestell walk her home.

She was reluctant but eventually agreed.

The woman stopped several times during the walk to tell Kestell she was fine and could walk the rest of the way alone, but he insisted on walking with her.

After reaching Hartstown Park, the next thing the victim remembered was lying on the ground in agony.

She realised she was being raped, and she then tried to fight off her attacker, who she realised was Kestell.

After Kestell left, the victim made her way home, arriving around 3 am.

The court heard the woman spent the weekend trying to process what had happened before going to a friend’s house the following Monday and telling her about the rape.

She then contacted a sexual assault treatment unit and made a complaint to gardai.

The court was told the woman had also been receiving a large number of messages from an anonymous sender for several years before this incident.

She told her partner and friends about this, and they unsuccessfully tried to identify the sender.

During the investigation, gardai traced the messages, some of which were sexual and explicit, to a phone owned by Kestell.

Kestell was arrested and interviewed several times.

He initially denied any sexual interaction with the victim before claiming that she initiated sexual contact by performing oral sex.

In another interview, he claimed sex took place accidentally after he fell on top on top of her with his penis exposed.

Kestell told gardai, “I’m not sure if I entered her…the ground was wet and slippy, I could have slipped in.”

Kestell gave evidence during the trial, admitting he told some lies to gardai.

He said there had been a consensual sexual interaction with the victim on the night in question.

Gda Bellew agreed with Dominic McGinn SC, defending, that his client answered all questions put to him by gardai and handed over phones and clothing.

Mr McGinn asked the court to take into account the “limited” mitigating factors including his client’s lack of previous convictions and co-operation with gardai.

After the judge noted that Kestell was “not particularly truthful” in his dealing with gardai, Mr McGinn noted that his client did not obstruct the investigation.

Mr McGinn said his client has a solid work history and is a father of three adult children. He told the court that Kestell’s marriage is “no longer viable” since his conviction.

He submitted to the court this was an opportunistic crime, which involved no violence beyond that of the act itself.

Mr Justice Hunt adjourned the case to March 15 for finalisation and remanded Kestell in custody until that date.

Mr Gillane told the court that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) views this case as falling into the higher category for sentencing as the incident involved an abuse of trust, an element of premeditation and occurred in a public place in the early hours at a location near the victim’s home.

The DPP also noted that sexualised messages were also sent by Kestell.

Mr McGinn submitted to the court that while the court would consider the “profound and devastating” impact of the offence on the woman as an aggravating factor, this case did not fall into the higher category for sentencing.

Mr McGinn told the court that this was a single offence and did not feature particular degradation or humiliation. He suggested there was no additional violence used beyond that of the act itself.

Defence counsel submitted that this was an opportunistic crime and that the messages played no role in the offence.

In her victim impact statement, the woman also said the fact that “this man” lived in the local area made her recovery from this “horrendous ordeal” even harder.

She said she would crawl to the corner of a room during flashbacks and “hope the walls pull me in”. The flashbacks could be triggered by someone driving down the road or the smell of beer on someone’s breath.

She said she also asked her doctor for a full blood transfusion as she felt “my body was infected by him”. While she was cleared of sexually transmitted infections, she said she “still felt infected” and “contaminated”.

“I felt if all my blood was replaced, I wouldn’t be impure,” she said, adding that this feeling had “devastating consequences” for her as a partner and a mother.

“I didn’t want to put any part of my defiled body in contact with theirs…I needed to keep them pure and safe”.

Her family started to blow kisses and do air hugs during times when she was unable to hug.

She noted she was asked during cross-examination why she didn’t immediately tell her partner when she returned home after the rape.

“How silly of me not to follow the textbook of rules immediately after [being violently raped]…Who says what is right or wrong or how to behave after a sexual assault.”

She said society’s perceptions are “all wrong” and need to change.

The victim said her life was put on hold after the rape, and she missed social events. She also lost friendships and became “untrusting of people”.

“I also lost one of my best friends – your wife. You know how close we were,” she said, describing how her friend described her as “like a sister” in one message.

She said Kestell “also put an end” to her walking home alone after going out with friends at night, as she used to do.

She said it should not be a risk to walk home alone at night as a woman.

Referring to anonymous messages she’d received for years prior to the night, she described efforts she and others made to find out the identity of the sender and how these messages included “vulgar pictures”.

She said her phone kept vibrating while she was speaking to gardai and told them it was “probably just messages from the pest number”.

She said gardai asked to look at her phone and found the location of the sender.

“I became violently sick when they showed me. It was the predator’s address who had attacked me in the park.”

She went on to thank the gardai, prosecuting counsel and the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre.

She also expressed her thanks to the jury who had “given me the chance to live again and be a mam, something I’ve not done or been able to do for the last four and a half years.

Words can’t express what this means to me and thank you from the bottom of my heart”.

She also thanked her partner and her children, some of whom were in court. She said she was wrong when she told them before that monsters aren’t real.

“Little did we know that this monster lived so close by and knew our family. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to protect you, my babies, from this horrendous experience”.

She noted that some of her adult children attended the trial and heard “vulgar and distasteful lies told about your mother”, which she described as “heart-breaking”.

But, they remained dignified and strong, and she said she is “very privileged and proud as always to be your mammy”.