Today in court

By Declan Brennan and Fiona Ferguson

A tourist has been jailed for four and a half years for the rape of a woman during a visit to Ireland.

Hoi Ping Yung (47) was convicted last December at the Central Criminal Court of raping the woman in a Dublin hotel room on Harcourt Street, Dublin city centre on November 21, 2013.

Yung, who owns a family takeaway business in the UK, had flown to Dublin with a male friend who knew the complainant. The three had travelled into Dublin city in the morning and spent the day drinking and visiting around five pubs.

After missing the last bus home, they agreed to get a twin room in a hotel. The victim went to sleep in a single bed while the two men took the double bed.

The woman told the trial she awoke twice to find Yung lying next to her and rubbing her arm and leg. She elbowed him away each time and fell back asleep.

She awoke a third time to find her body had been pulled down in the bed and Yung was raping her.

She said “what the fuck” and he stopped and got off her and got back into the other bed. The woman dressed quickly, left the hotel room and reported the rape.

Gardaí quickly arrived at the scene and arrested Yung but he was deemed too drunk to be fit for interview. He was arrested some time later and told gardaí he had no memory of the rape.

He said he wasn't denying sex had taken place but maintained that if it did happen it was consensual. He has no previous convictions, Sean Guerin SC, prosecuting, told the court.

Yung, formerly of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England had pleaded not guilty to rape.

Ms Justice Tara Burns noted the references and testimonials handed into court on Yung's behalf.

She said that while he may be a man of good character, the fact of the matter was he had committed a crime of the most violating nature against the woman. She noted the defence had presented alcohol as an explanation but not an excuse.

The judge said Young had violated the body of the woman without her consent which had had lasting and devastating consequences for her. She noted the ongoing effects on the woman's personal, family and work circumstances.

Ms Justice Burns took into account the fact Yung had no previous convictions, was a hard-working individual with a good work ethic and supportive family. She noted many people spoke well of him.

She noted he did not have family or friends in this jurisdiction but has had some family visits. She said there had been a delay in the prosecution but noted the victim also had to deal with the delay.

Ms Justice Burns set a headline sentence of seven and a half years but having regard to the mitigating factors she reduced this to four and a half years.

The judge wished the woman the best of luck in the future and told her she had been very brave to provide such a detailed victim impact statement.

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By Fiona Ferguson and Declan Brennan

A public order unit Garda who assaulted a RTÉ cameraman during street protests has received a fully suspended one year prison sentence.

Judge Melanie Greally said that the assault by Garda Sean Lucey (42) during anti-racism protests in Dublin city centre in February 2016 was an unjustified act of aggression.

Lucey stepped forward from a line of public order unit gardai and struck the camera of Colm Hand, an experienced RTÉ cameraman covering the protests.

He then again swung his baton with full force and struck Mr Hand to the groin.The victim sustained significant bruising and pain.

Judge Greally rejected a characterisation by Lucey of the assault on Colm Hand as an error of judgement and excessive conduct.

She said that Lucey's statement of regret fell short of an apology and that an offer to make a donation to a charity of Mr Hand's choosing did not represent a suitable gesture of remorse to the victim.

“There are public interest issues at play in this case," she said. "A transgression of this kind must be seen to carry serious consequences."

She said she would suspend the prison sentence on the basis of Lucey's absence of previous offending and his unblemished record of service with gardaí.

Judge Greally said, given these facts, she viewed Lucey's offending as an aberration.

Gda Lucey, who has been stationed at Crumlin Village and Sundrive Road Garda stations, had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to one count of assault causing harm to Mr Hand at Cathedral Street, Dublin city centre, on February 6, 2016, and to damaging his camera.

Following a five-day trial last December, a jury convicted him of assaulting Mr Hand and acquitted him of criminal damage.

Lucey was detailed to a public order unit to deal with confrontations between anti-racism protesters and gardaí who were trying to prevent protesters from getting to supporters of a “far right group”.

Mr Hand told the court in his victim impact statement that he had been in the area as part of his work for the public service broadcaster and did not pose a threat to anyone. He outlined the effects the incident and subsequent trial process had on him, including sleeplessness, worry and stress.

“What happened that day shattered my confidence and I have never really recovered,” he told the court.

Judge Greally said that on the day in question, there was an element in the groups gathering that was intent on having a violent confrontation and gardai were under intense pressure.

She said she had the highest respect for the work of gardai. She said the public rely on gardai and the public order unit to exercise their significant powers with restraint and self-control.

She said that assessing the necessary use of force at public order events was easier said than done, but she rejected Lucey's description of his actions as an error of judgement.

Judge Greally said that Mr Hand was conspicuously engaging in the job he was hired to do and did not at any time present a threat to anyone.

She said the fleeting lapse of control by Lucey involved a blow being struck at full force into the victim's groin. She said the blow had the potential to cause serious physical injury and did indeed result in a deterioration in physiological and emotional wellbeing and qualify of life of Mr Hand.

In determining her sentence, Judge Greally said she was also taking into consideration Lucey's family circumstances, the possible consequences of a criminal conviction for his career and favourable character references.

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By Declan Brennan

A man has received a suspended sentence for violently assaulting two women after he sexually assaulted one of them.

During the attacks in August 2014, Stephen Kane (29) punched the women in the corridor of a Dublin apartment block after they had come back to a party for late night drinks.

The women, who were aged in their early 20s, were leaving the flat where earlier Kane and another man, Daryl Ralph, had sexually assaulted one of them.

Detective Garda Aisha Fitzsimons told the Central Criminal Court that the women had come to a party in the flat after receiving a invitation from a man they knew there. She said a lot of alcohol was consumed by everyone.

At around 5am, the two women and four men were left in the flat. One of these men later told gardaí that he saw Ralph and Kane sitting on either side of the woman and both men kept trying to kiss her and put their penises into her mouth.

The woman kept turning away from the men. Kane stripped off and got on top of the woman and both men pulled her dress up and Kane was seen “humping” the woman.

Soon after this, one of the other men was escorting the women out of the flat when “a dispute arose” and Kane became aggressive. He punched the sexual assault victim in the mouth and then punched her friend twice in the mouth and nose before biting her arm.

Gardai were called and Kane was arrested that evening at the flat. He was releasing pending charge and left Ireland for New Zealand.

His lawyers told the court he then went to Australia and established a new life for himself there, stopped drinking and got a job working on a large poultry farm. Four days before he was due to wed an Australian woman, police arrested him for extradition back to Ireland.

Kane, with a former address at Park West Point, Clondalkin, Dublin, pleaded guilty to sexual assault and two counts of assault causing harm at an apartment on a date in August 2014.

In her victim impact statement, the first woman said she suffered flashbacks and experienced feelings of fear and shame over the sexual assault and assault. The other woman said the attacks turned a fun night into “a nightmare that changed my life”.

She said she became vulnerable and paranoid as a result.

The attacks were “a shocking and unexpected explosion of violence”, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said. He said the sexual assault was demeaning and humiliating for the victim and said that intoxication could not be an excuse.

He said he accepted as sincere Kane's expressions of remorse and of abject shame for what he did and how he behaved. He described the payment of €10,000 to the court as a significant indication of Kane's remorse.

Kane's lawyers told the court that he had grown up in a violent home where he had to protect his mother from his father. John Fitzgerald SC said that as a adult Kane began abusing alcohol and drugs and this behaviour rapidly deteriorated after Kane found his father hanging from an attic in his home.

He said that on the night Kane met the women “his demons” were released. Counsel said that Kane went to Australia to break the cycle of drink and drunk abuse and he was successful at this.

Mr Fitzgerald said that his client is a very different person now to the one who carried out the attacks six years ago.

Mr Justice McDermott imposed concurrent sentences of two years and two and a half years for the assaults and sexual assault. He backdated these to November 2018 when Kane went into custody.

He suspended the remainder of the sentence for two years on condition Kane submit himself to psychological counselling and address the causes of his offending.

He said he was taking into consideration, among other mitigating factors, the manner in which Kane has lived his life since offending. The court heard that the family of his fiancee are standing by Kane and had written enormously positive character references.

In July 2018, Ralph, of Ballyfermot Crescent, Dublin, received a suspended two-year sentence after he pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to attempted sexual assault at the flat.