A MAN who has already served time in jail for raping two women will be sentenced on Friday for raping a foreign national in Cork city last year.
Judge Paul Carney indicated he believed the man deserved a life sentence, but that he was restrained by a previous Court of Criminal Appeal ruling in a separate rape case.
David Hegarty (32), was jailed for 10 years on March 4th, 2000, for raping two female students in Cork city centre on October 5th and October 27th, 1998.
Hegarty, a father of one with a former address at Nutley Road, Mahon, Cork, had been released from prison just two years before he raped the foreign national in the early hours of May 22nd, 2008. He pleaded guilty to the crime.
The victim told Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court: “I will never forgive him for what he did and I will never forget it.” She said Hegarty’s attack had “totally changed my lifestyle” and left her afraid to walk anywhere on her own. She said: “Counselling is the only place where I can talk openly about what happened.”
Hegarty said in evidence that he wished to say he was sorry. He said he would “wholeheartedly co-operate” with any treatment he might be offered in prison.
Det Garda John McDonagh told Karen O’Connor, prosecuting, that the victim was waiting for a bus in the early hours when Hegarty grabbed her around the neck and dragged her to a lane.
She screamed and he threatened to kill her unless she stopped. Hegarty then orally raped her.
Det Garda McDonagh said the victim tried to get the attention of a member of the public in a vehicle. Hegarty was very drunk at the time and later made some admissions, including that there had been oral sex, and he was sorry he had hurt the victim. Det Garda McDonagh said that after his release from the 10-year sentence, Hegarty worked as a commis chef in Kerry for some time until convicted of public order offences in Kerry and Cork.
Det Garda McDonagh agreed with defence counsel Patrick MacEntee SC that Hegarty was very drunk when arrested.
Ms O’Connor told Mr Justice Carney that the DPP considered the case to fall into the “lower end of the severe category of offending” as regards sentencing.
Mr Justice Carney said: “He has committed three rapes,” which suggested to him that he would do so again at the first opportunity “and that the appropriate sentence is one of life imprisonment”.
He noted he had imposed a life sentence in such a case, but the Court of Criminal Appeal, presided over by Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, had said he could not do so. “In this judgement dated July 31, 2008, the CCA states I cannot protect the citizens of the State,” he said, adding that he would hear submissions on the issue on Friday, and remanded Hegarty in custody.