Dublin man jailed for raping wife

This article contains references to rape and sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.

By Fiona Ferguson

A man who raped and smothered his wife while armed with a knife during an incident in which she was afraid she may be killed has been jailed for 12 and a half years.

The Central Criminal Court heard that the victim is now raising her children alone, having become isolated from the rest of the Travelling community for bringing her former husband to court.

She said it was “not the Traveller way” to bring their own to court and she had believed for a time he would do better. She wanted her kids to have two parents and for them to be good role models.

She said other women in her community would have just put up with what happened but she had followed through on the case for the sake of her own girls. She said the truth was now out and that she was not the monster – the accused man is the monster.

The 25-year-old man, who can not be identified to protect his wife’s identity, was convicted following a trial earlier this year of the rape, sexual assault, false imprisonment and making threats to kill his wife at the family home in Dublin on a date in September 2023.

He has 35 previous convictions for offences including theft, burglary, robbery and breach of a protection order.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo said the woman was subjected to two rapes and two serious sexual assaults by her husband in what was effectively the family home, and in what was a “terrifying” experience for her.

Mr Justice Naidoo said it was a significant breach of trust and that the offending involved a level of violence, the threat of violence and the restriction of her liberty. He noted the man does not accept the guilty verdicts and has not expressed any remorse.

He set a sentence of 13 years and, noting there was little in the way of mitigation, suspended the final six months on a number of conditions, including that the man engage with the Probation Service.

After the sentence was handed down, the man’s supporters started shouting and exchanging insults with the complainant before they were removed from the court by gardaí.

A local garda told Mark Lynam SC, prosecuting, that the couple are members of the Travelling community and had married young. They had a turbulent relationship, with a number of safety and barring orders over the years.

The garda said the accused man was in prison for a number of years but the couple rekindled their relationship after his release. They were living in separate locations at the time and on the day in question, she travelled to his home.

She went to bed as she was feeling unwell and woke to him rubbing her leg. She told him she was unwell and went back to sleep. She said the accused man then got on top of her and put his hand over her nose and mouth leaving her unable to breathe.

She fought him off, sustaining injuries in the process, and got out of bed. She went to the window to try and breathe but may have lost consciousness and fell onto the bed.

She saw the man with a knife. He told her not to talk or shout. “If the gardai come I will stab you to death,” he told her, saying he would get jail either way.

She went downstairs, wobbly and weak, while the man told her to clean up the blood. She said her face was ashen grey and her lips blue from the smothering. She saw a knife on the couch in the sitting room and tried to bide her time, as she was afraid he would kill her if she went upstairs.

She made him swear on their children’s lives that he would not kill her before they went upstairs again. They got into bed and she made it clear she did not want to do anything.

The accused man did not listen and raped her. He then sexually assaulted her before raping her a second time. She did not resist but made it clear she did not want to do it.

The accused man later went through her phone and accused her of having sex with other men. He also accessed pornography and dating sites on her phone.

The next morning, she accused him of rape but he sought to minimise it. She promised she would not report it so she could leave the house. She told him she was going to the social welfare office but went to the garda station and reported what had happened.

The man was later interviewed and denied any sexual assault or rape had taken place, accusing the woman of making it all up.

In her victim impact statement, the woman outlined how she had come from a strict family and thought her new husband would be decent when they married at a very young age. She said it did not take long for him to show his true colours.

She said he would go drinking and gambling, as well as scamming her out of her social welfare payments when she had small children to feed. She said he did not hit her, but screamed and punched walls.

She said following his release from prison he had come to her full of promises and told her he had done anger management.

She said instead, the man had tried to kill her in her own bed and made her a prisoner in her own home on the night in question. She said she kept thinking about how her children would be told their mammy was dead.

She said since the offence she has constantly worried about her safety. She said she has suffered flashbacks and nightmares from which she wakes up screaming and terrified.

Mr Lynam said the Director of Public Prosecutions placed this case into the 10 to 15 years headline sentencing category, noting the domestic violence and relationship were aggravating factors.

Tim O’Leary SC, defending, said the accused man does not accept the facts of the case. He submitted his client had no previous convictions of this kind.

He said for the purpose of legal argument in relation to the headline sentence, he would submit the case involved a one-off incident, with all the offending happening during the course of that domestic incident. He said he did not agree it should fall into the 10 to 15 year sentencing bracket.