Crazy actor nicknamed ‘Shakespeare Rapist’ released from prison after 16 years

Perverted rapist Francis Condra – nicknamed the “Shakespeare Rapist” – has been released from prison after serving 16 years for repeatedly raping his victim and slashing her genitals with a carving knife.

Evil Condra, 64, who changed his name to Hassan Selim in prison and converted to Islam, was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2006 after sexually abusing a woman for five hours.

The part-time actor and playwright nicknamed the “Shakespeare Rapist” has been released from Arbour Hill Prison.

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The pervert was found guilty by a jury in 2006 following an 11-day trial at the Central Criminal Court after he was found guilty of rape, sexual assault, false imprisonment and assault on a woman in Drogheda, Co Louth.

The court heard that Condra dragged his victim into a bedroom by her hair, raped her repeatedly and slashed her genitals with a carving knife. During the trial, Det Garda Seamus Nolan, of Drogheda, told the court: “In 22 years in An Garda Siochana, I have never witnessed a more brutal or sustained attack.”

The rapist, of Upper Magdalene Street in Drogheda, attacked his victim after a party at his home on November 8, 2003. He began his sick attack at around 2am and it lasted for around five hours, during which time the 40-year-old woman, who had only met him that evening through friends at a local pub, put up a brave resistance.

When everyone else had left, she was just packing up her things when Condra attacked her. He knelt over her, cursed at her and ordered her to take off her clothes. She begged him to stop, but he refused and ripped off her skirt, one of her boots and her tights.

The woman was held against her will in his apartment until about 7 a.m. and raped three or four times. She screamed for help the entire time, but a neighbor who heard her thought she was having a domestic dispute. The victim, who said she thought she was dying, cut her hand as she tried to grab the knife to defend herself.

Eventually she managed to hail a taxi and the driver took her straight to Drogheda Garda Station where an officer called an ambulance. The woman was treated at both Our Lady Of Lourdes Hospital and Rotunda Hospital. She directed Gardai to Condra’s flat where they found the bloodstained knife, blood-soaked walls, the headboard of the bed, the duvet cover and the mattress.

Her bra and bracelet were also there. Her injuries included two black eyes, swelling on her face and head, scratches on her legs and arms and a 4cm cut on her genitals. Defence lawyer Anthony Salmon said: “My client has no objection to the jury’s verdict. He deeply regrets what he did.”

Judge Henry Abbott imposed a sentence of 16 years for rape, eight years for aggravated sexual assault, three years for assault and three years for false imprisonment. All sentences are to be served concurrently.

Judge Abbott said: “This rape is at the upper end of the scale of seriousness. It is made even more serious because it is linked to a system of violence… a cruel and threatening one.” “The victim is to be commended for daring the defendant to kill her.”

“That might have prevented him from doing something even worse.” After the verdict was announced, Condra’s victim said the 16-year prison sentence was “appropriate.”

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