Six-year jail term for Offaly man who raped his best friend

by Sonya McLean

A man who raped his best friend while she slept beside her grandchild has been jailed for six years.

The 44-year-old Offaly man was convicted following a trial at the Central Criminal Court on one charge of raping the woman in her home on May 25, 2022.

A local garda told Kevin White SC, prosecuting, that the woman had gone to bed around midnight and had taken her infant grandchild with her to her bedroom. The child was placed in a Moses basket by her bed, she had her period at the time and she took a sleeping tablet.

The woman told the jury that she later woke up to find she was naked and there was a person on top of her having sex with her. She managed to push the person off and left her bedroom.

She said her friend, the accused, then came out of her bedroom. He was naked on top and his bottoms were around his ankles.

She asked him did he realise what he had done but he just replied: “Where is my phone?”

Mr White said the woman later had to call gardaí as the man refused to leave her home. She and her son managed to get him out of the house at one point but he returned moments later and was banging on the doors and windows before he came around the back of the house and tried to gain entry there.

The man was arrested for a public order offence and the gardaí returned to the house the following morning in an effort to find the man’s phone.

Mr White said the woman later told her son what had happened and they reported the rape to the gardaí. She was treated in a local Sexual Assault Treatment Unit and was found to have bruising and a small cut to her vagina.

The man has eight previous convictions for District Court offences including road traffic and public order offences.

It was confirmed that the man was arrested but maintained that the sex was consensual. He said he and the woman had sex numerous times previously and he would often call over during the night.

A victim impact statement, read into the record by the prosecuting garda said the woman used to “generally love life”.

“I was trustworthy and outgoing. I laughed – four years ago he took all that away”.

“I feel the light that used to shine so bright is extinct,” the woman continued. She described feeling like “a zombie” living on auto-pilot. She said she was afraid to leave her house alone and never slept in her bedroom again, instead sleeping on her couch.

“There are no words to accurately explain how much this assault has changed my life,” she said.

She said she lost out on quality time with a dying relative, who has since passed away, as she was afraid to leave the house.

The woman said she has put in to transfer her accommodation and that the rape had “shattered my sense of security in my home”.

“I always feel dirty, scrub my body so much, yet I still feel dirty,” the woman said.

She said she was handing the man the guilt and described the “shame, self hatred and distrust that was never mine to carry”.

The woman thanked the gardaí, her wonderful friends and family for sticking by her and the judge and jury for hearing her case.

“What happens in the dark must always come to light,” the woman concluded her statement.

Mr Justice Paul Burns addressed the woman in court and thanked her for victim impact statement which gave “valuable insight” into how the rape impacted her.

Brendan Grehan SC, defending, said his client does not accept the verdict of the jury and maintains that he had consensual sex with the woman.

“His position has been constant throughout," counsel submitted.

He asked the court to accept that there was no gratuitous violence in the case. He said it was a sad case as his client and the woman “had been friends all their lives”.

Sentencing the man on Monday, Mr Justice Paul Burns said the man had been a trusted friend of the victim who took advantage of the relationship to gain admission to her home and carry out the offence there. He noted the significant adverse effect it has had on the woman.

He set a headline sentence of eight years imprisonment and, taking all the circumstances of the case into account, imposed a sentence of seven years with the final year suspended for three years to encourage rehabilitation.

The conditions of the suspension include three years’ probation supervision and attending any therapies or courses directed by that service.