Convicted rapist jailed for harassing and threatening teenage partner

This article contains references to rape. Reader discretion is advised.

By Isabel Hayes

A convicted rapist who harassed and threatened to kill his former teenage partner must serve a further three years in prison, a judge has ordered.

The 57-year-old man was jailed for 10 years last year after he pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to raping a 16-year-old girl in his home in June 2018.

That same year, he started a relationship with the 18-year-old victim in this case, whom he met online while selling puppies. He was 33 years older than her and the young woman fell out with her family as they did not approve of the relationship, Tessa White BL, prosecuting, told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

They had a child together in the course of their brief relationship and when it ended, the man harassed the young woman and threatened to kill her on three occasions, the court heard. He also contacted her employer making a false threat, with the woman eventually losing her job.

The Dublin man pleaded guilty to one count of harassing the woman on dates between December 18, 2019 and March 31, 2020 and three counts of threats to kill on January 11, 2020. He has 29 previous convictions. He can’t be named as he has other matters before the courts.

He entered the guilty pleas after his trial got underway last March and these were accepted by the Director of Public Prosecutions. A charge of coercive control was withdrawn.

The court heard the woman was working as a healthcare assistant and the man emailed her employer a photo she had previously sent him of an elderly patient with a head wound. The picture was a close-up of the patient’s cut forehead and the woman had sent it to the man saying “poor woman”. However, he falsely alleged to her employer that the woman was mistreating patients.

The woman was suspended from her job and eventually fired as a result of the photo being sent to her employer.

Michael Hourigan SC, defending, told the court the woman lost her job as a result of the fact that she had sent a photo of a resident, not because the employer believed the false allegation of mistreatment.

Sentencing the man, Judge Elma Sheahan noted he was on bail for the rape offence when he engaged in this offence. She said the woman was a young adult while he was a “mature man” with a significant disparity in age between them.

She said the man’s behaviour had a lasting impact on her life and led to her losing her job which she enjoyed and which was helping to support the man’s child.

“The loss of her job was a significant event and there were others which, taken together, were very upsetting and frightening,” Judge Sheahan said. The judge read out texts the man sent the young woman, in which he said he would destroy her career, and that she would have to live with not being able to give their son the life he deserved.

The judge noted the defence assertion that the woman lost her job because she had sent a photograph she should not have, but said: “It can’t be seriously suggested she would have lost her job without his nasty efforts to cause her difficulty at work.”

The judge handed down a sentence of four years and suspended the final year on a number of conditions. She ordered that the sentence run consecutive to the sentence he is currently serving for rape. His earliest release date for that offence is October 2031.

The man was also ordered to have no contact with the victim in any capacity from today’s date and for a further five years upon his release from prison.

The court heard the man resented the fact the woman had started a new relationship and a “voluminous” booklet of material he sent to her during the offending period was handed into court by prosecuting counsel. He contacted her by text message, email and social media, often using different names.

“She felt quite scared he used so many different handles to contact her,” Ms White said.

In one email thread entitled ‘My suicide’, the man emailed the woman 25 times in a 24 hour period, the court heard.

He sent her three emails on January 11, 2020 threatening to kill her and her new partner, saying: “I’ve nothing to live for anymore. Before I go, so will you and that prick” and: “I’m not going to settle until both you and that prick die.”

In a victim impact statement which she read out herself in court, the woman said her relationship with the man meant she lost her family and close friends. She said she struggled with depression and anxiety and required on-going counselling as a result of his actions.

She said his threats had affected her day to day life. “I am constantly looking over my shoulder in case I’m being followed or watched,” she said.

In his plea of mitigation, Mr Hourigan said his client had offered early guilty pleas to the offences, and the trial wouldn’t have been necessary if the DPP had accepted the pleas at an earlier stage.

He said the man was a binge drinker and someone who had significant difficulties in his life. He lost his wife and youngest child in an accident several years ago and has no contact with his remaining adult children.

The man has worked in the past in various jobs, including security, retail and cleaning.