A CO TIPPERARY teenager who was violently sexually assaulted has said in her victim impact statement that she has since tried to kill herself “many times and in many ways”.
Her attacker, Noel Holland (37) of Clarke’s Flats, Main Street, Templemore, was sentenced to eight years by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court yesterday after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the then 18-year-old at his home on February 1st, 2009.
Deirdre Murphy SC, with Kathleen Noctor, prosecuting, said the DPP felt that the case was the “higher end of the scale”.
Mr Justice Carney declared Holland a sex offender and said having taken into account the “grave nature of the offence, the gratuitous violence used, the terror-inducing conduct of the accused and the effect on the victim”, the case merited an eight-year sentence.
The judge suspended the final three years after taking into consideration strict conditions.
Garda PJ O’Brien said Holland invited the girl back to his home on the pretence of allowing her to call a taxi after they had both been at another woman’s home that night. He later sexually assaulted her while he held her nose and mouth and tried to choke her.
The teenager was crying and begging him to stop, but Holland took off her boots and leggings and demanded she consent to sex.
When she refused, he forced her to perform oral sex on him.
He allowed her to go to the toilet and the victim managed to grab her mobile phone.
She texted her father “I am being raped”, but Holland took the phone and forced her to perform oral sex on him again.
Her mother then called her and she shouted into the phone: “Help I am being raped. The man is Holland. I am in Templemore.”
She went to a nearby hotel and the gardaí were called.
Meanwhile, Holland went to the local Garda station and said a woman was going to say he raped her before he added: “I want to get her for libel.”
Garda O’Brien arrived at the hotel, where he said the teenager was very upset. She had a cut to her lower lip and bruising around her throat. She was brought to the sexual assault unit in the local hospital and Holland was arrested.