Man jailed for repeatedly raping ex-partner and teenager in ‘night of horror’

A man who broke into his ex-partner’s home before repeatedly raping her and her teenage foster daughter during a cocaine-fuelled “night of horror” has been jailed for 18 years.

The man (37) threatened the mother with a knife during the night-long ordeal which only ended when he fell asleep the next morning.

At a hearing at the Central Criminal Court on Monday, Judge Patrick McCarthy said the case was one of the most serious sexual offence cases that has come before him.

He said the incidents could only be described as “a night of horror” during which the man subjected his former partner and a teenage girl to “prolonged abuse of the vilest kind”.

The judge said he did not put significance on the fact the man had been drinking whiskey and taking cocaine on the date in question and noted that he had been in “full command of his senses”.

He said the two victims had been subjected to repeated rapes and sexual assaults after the man had broken into his ex-partner’s home.

The man had pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to six counts of rape at a house in Co Limerick on the night of September 10th, 2016.

Garda John Moriarty told Paul Greene SC, prosecuting, that the daughter, who was 16-years-old at the time of the attacks, did not submit a victim impact statement. He said she was "getting on okay day to day" but has had great difficulties since the attacks.

In a victim impact statement read out by Mr Greene, the man’s ex -partner described feeling to blame for what happened to her foster daughter, but said she believed the man would have killed her had she spoken up while he held the knife to her throat.

“I hate him with a vengeance for what he did to us,” she said, adding that the man had left her “shattered” physically and mentally.

Mr Moriarty agreed with Mark Nicholas SC, defending, that his client had been highly intoxicated on arrest and had admitted that he had hurt his former partner physically and sexually.

The garda agreed that the man was tearful and upset during his interviews when details of what he did to the teenage girl were read to him.

Mr Nicholas told the judge that he had been instructed to apologise to the injured parties.

He asked the judge to take into consideration his client’s guilty plea and previous good character. He also asked the judge to be as lenient as he could.

Break-in

The court heard that the older woman had been in a relationship with the man but it had ended a year before the incident.

On the night in question she had fallen asleep on her couch and was woken up with the man’s hand over her mouth while he pressed a kitchen knife into her neck.

The man told her he had broken into the house. She went to scream and he told her to shut up or he was going to kill her.

He asked her to undress. She said no and he slapped her on the face.

He then began undressing her, stripping her naked. He hit her again and the woman believed her life was in imminent danger, the court heard.

He climbed on top of her and tried to rape her but failed and then began masturbating himself and kissing her. He continued to strike her.

He then raped her while threatening to put the knife inside her. He then orally raped her before asking about who else was in the house.

The woman told him her foster child, who the man did not know, was asleep upstairs, and he said he wanted “to do” her next.

The man pulled the woman upstairs by the hair and neck and told her to get the child. The court heard the woman tried to protect the girl and told the man she was 16 and “only a child”.

The man threatened her with the knife and forced the woman to get the girl. The two victims held on to one another while the man marched them downstairs, where he repeatedly raped them both.

In between the repeated rapes over the course of the night the man took breaks and was swigging whiskey from a bottle.

The ordeal lasted a number of hours during which the man refused to let the woman leave to use the bathroom, forcing her to relieve herself in the living room.

After several hours the woman asked if she could get dressed as she was cold and the man struck her in the face. He took her mobile from her and smashed it against the wall.

The ordeal ended when he fell asleep and the victims grabbed some clothes and fled.

The older woman told the court that she lost half of her possessions because she couldn’t face going back to the house after the attacks.

She said she had suffered from vertigo as a result of a direct blow to her face.