A convicted rapist who savagely attacked a woman while driving her home has been jailed for 10 years by Mr Justice Barry White at the Central Criminal Court.
Niall Healy (30), Palmerstown Woods, Clondalkin, was also convicted by a jury in June of falsely imprisoning the now 24-year-old woman, sexually assaulting her and assault causing her harm on the same occasion, in the early morning of July 20th, 2001.
Mr Justice White certified Healy for registration as a sexual offender. The jury returned its unanimous verdicts following one hour and 25 minutes' deliberating after a five-day trial.
Mr Justice White imposed two concurrent 20-year sentences for the aggravated sexual assault and false imprisonment but suspended the last 10 years of each on condition that Healy undergo treatment available to him in prison and co-operate with the probation service upon his release. He imposed further concurrent terms of five years for the sexual assault and two years for the assault on the woman.
Insp Kevin Gralton said Healy was jailed for 12 years on June 22nd, 1993, for rape. The final six years of this sentence was suspended by Mr Justice Vivian Lavan and the suspended portion was to run from June 22nd, 1998, to June 22, 2005. Insp Gralton told Mr Justice White that as the suspended term was now "spent" there was no application for it to be reactivated.
He said the victim did not wish to exercise her right to address the court on the impact the offences had on her but in a written report, she had outlined a series of difficulties she had with her family and her boyfriend as a result of what Healy did to her.
She told of her feelings of distrust, leading her to sleep for months afterwards with a knife under her pillow.
Mr Justice White said he was concerned having learned of Healy's previous rape conviction that it was necessary "to effectively put him in prison and throw away the key" but said that this would only represent "society's revenge" and would serve nobody.
He said that Healy had committed a number of serious offences in "what appeared to be a calculated fashion" which had seriously scarred the victim emotionally. He took into consideration a psychiatric report which concluded that Healy did not fully appreciate the gravity of his offence on his victim.
The report also stated that he was in mid- to high-risk of reoffending but Mr Justice White accepted this could be reduced substantially if he was placed under a strict regime while in custody.
He also took into account Garda evidence that there had been a substantial change in Healy's life since the offence.