Man jailed for sexual assault of woman

By David O’Sullivan

This report contains details some readers may find upsetting.

A man who sexually assaulted his partner’s friend while two children lay sleeping in the bunk bed below her has been jailed for two years.

The 40-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, appeared before Judge Patricia Ryan in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court having been found guilty of two counts of sexual assault on September 7, 2018.

He was found guilty following a trial last November.

An investigating garda told Aideen Collard BL, prosecuting, that the man sexually assaulted his partner’s friend while she slept over at their house on September 7, 2018.

The woman had spent the day shopping with his partner and had arranged to spend the night at their home with her child.

After spending time watching television, the woman went to bed. She was sleeping on a bunk bed with her child and her friend’s child underneath her.

In the early hours of the morning, the woman woke up to feel a hand in her vagina. She was afraid to move and saw the flash of a phone and a man go behind her.

The man left the room and she could hear him move around outside the bedroom. She lay there before texting her then-partner that she had been assaulted. The accused was the only man in the apartment at the time.

A short while afterwards, the man returned and put his hand down the back of her legs. The woman was too afraid to turn around so pushed him away using her body.

He then left and went back to his own room. The children sleeping below didn’t wake up during the assaults.

The court heard the victim felt sick and shocked the next morning, and could hear the man speaking normally to the children and his partner.

The man left the residence and the woman informed his partner what had happened. His partner then confronted him by phone.

He later texted the victim: “I don’t know what I done last night and I mean that with all my heart,” “I feel sick” and “If I did do what you said I deserve to be locked up.”

The incident was reported to the gardai that evening.

In garda interview, the man denied the allegations but admitted to being out of bed at the time of the sexual assaults. He said the woman could have made up the allegations as she wanted his partner “to herself.”

In a victim impact statement handed in to the court, the woman said she feels guilt as a mother “knowing I let my child around someone who could do that.”

“My body was used for someone’s satisfaction while I slept. I felt like a used dog,” she said, and that the consequences of the sexual assault “will last forever.”

Roderick O’Hanlon SC, defending, said his client was assessed at below average likelihood of reoffending.

He said his client’s previous convictions did not include anything relevant or related and that he was gainfully employed up until recently.

The man has ten previous convictions for misuse of drugs and road traffic offences.

In sentencing, Judge Ryan said the aggravating factors included that the sexual assaults occurred “not once, but twice,” that it occurred with children present in the room and the effect it had on the injured party.

She said mitigating factors include the man hasn’t come to adverse garda attention since the incident, that he has an excellent work record and that he has no previous relevant convictions.

Judge Ryan sentenced him to two years imprisonment and ordered that he be put on the sex offenders register.