Man jailed for raping woman in her sleep – The Irish Times

A delivery driver who “coldly and calculatingly” raped a woman in her sleep was sentenced to seven years in prison.

The 54-year-old Dublin man behaved “monstrous” when he took advantage of the woman he met on a dating website and then threw her out of his home with no regard for her welfare when she was “dazed” and physically injured, Judge Mary Ellen Ring said in sentencing on Monday.

The judge imposed a prison sentence of eight years, with the final year suspended, and ordered that the sentence be suspended until August 1, when the man will have to face the Irish Prison Service at Mountjoy Prison.

The man was found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of anally raping the woman at his home address on a date between 10 and 11 January 2020 following a trial last February. Judge Ring ordered that reporting restrictions preventing his name from being mentioned should remain in place for legal reasons.

Det Garda Bevin Meaney told the court that the woman, in her late 40s, met the man on a dating website and they chatted for a few weeks before arranging to meet at a Dublin hotel.

The court heard that the first date at the hotel went well, so the woman agreed to go home with the man to watch a film. When the night turned stormy, he suggested she stay the night and provided her with pyjamas and a dressing gown.

The court heard that the woman, who was a nervous driver, accepted the invitation but made it clear there would be no sexual activity. When it became clear she would not be driving, the man offered her gin, which she drank.

The court heard the woman had had one drink and was unsure if she had had a second. The court heard she was drunk when the man suggested they go to bed and cuddle. She again made it clear that nothing sexual would happen between them.

She fell asleep and woke up with a “sharp pain” before realizing the man was raping her. She was naked and said she repeatedly asked him to stop, but he continued. The woman passed out and then woke up to the lights on and the defendant ripping the bedclothes off her. She again felt pain and begged him to stop. She said the next thing she remembered was the man yelling at her to get up and get out of his house.

The woman left the house confused and shoeless. She got into her car and sat there crying when the man came out and threw her boots through the window.

She drove off but hit some speed bumps and her car broke down on the highway with a flat tire. She was helped by a taxi driver who gave her a free ride home before she contacted a friend who came to her aid. Later that day, she went to the police and a sexual assault treatment center and the man was arrested. He has no criminal record.

The court heard the woman had bruising on her body and blood tests showed no alcohol, but opioids, in her body. The woman had taken a cough medicine that did not contain opioids, but police found medication in the man’s refrigerator for which he could not provide details.

Defence lawyer Ciaran O’Loughlin SC said his client did not accept the jury’s verdict.

In her victim impact statement, read out in court by the investigating Garda, the woman described how she was a “shadow” of her former self after the rape.

“They used me and threw me away like a piece of trash,” she said.

She said she was shocked that the man was “granted the privilege of getting his affairs in order before the verdict” and was not taken into custody. She said the process was extremely difficult and she felt as if she was the one on trial.

In announcing the verdict, Judge Ring said the woman had “done nothing more than trusting someone who abused her and continuing to pursue that trust.”

She said the man “cold-bloodedly and calculatingly exploited the woman in her sleep, ignored the question of consent, was found guilty of anal rape and will be a sex offender for the rest of his life.”