A KERRY man who raped his ex-girlfriend as he “could not accept the relationship ending” has received a 10-year sentence, with three suspended.
The man left the woman in fear of her life and she now locks her bedroom door and keeps a baseball bat underneath her bed while she sleeps, the Central Criminal Court heard at the sentence hearing last week.
The 38-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect his victim’s identity, pleaded guilty to raping the woman at her house on May 20th, 2002.
Mr Justice Paul Carney said other than the man’s guilty plea, he couldn’t “find much else in his favour”. He ordered the man to undergo five years post-release supervision and keep away from his victim.
Garda Seán O’Donovan told Thomas Creed, prosecuting, that the man and the victim were in a relationship prior to the incident.
Shortly after they broke up, the complainant was out with a friend and saw a missed call on her mobile phone which she thought was from her ex-boyfriend.
She rang him on her mobile phone and asked him why he was looking for her. He said he wasn’t and hung up on her. She rang him back and he came to her house where they started to talk in the sitting room. An argument broke out as the complainant accused the man of being with another girl while they were together. He told her he was still in love with her and got annoyed with her for believing he was unfaithful.
The complainant tried to get him to leave her house but she said he pulled her on to the couch and tried to choke her before he had sex with her against her will.
He first tried to put his hand down her top and when she pushed him away, he told her “I’ve got nothing off you for the past two months.” Later, he tried to kick in the bathroom door but she managed to phone her father, who arrived at the house with gardaí.
Brian McInerney, defending, said the man admitted he had sexual intercourse with the woman without her consent and is remorseful for what he had done.
The defendant had “great difficulty” coming to terms with the relationship ending and Garda O’Donovan agreed with Mr McInerney that the incident was “completely out of character”.