Courts

Doctor who ‘failed to grasp basics of consent’ is jailed for rape of wife

Man (36), who is jailed for eight years, asked gardaí during questioning if it was an offence to rape one’s wife, court heard

A victim impact statement from the woman, who has since left Ireland, was read into the record. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh/The Irish Times
A victim impact statement from the woman, who has since left Ireland, was read into the record. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh/The Irish Times
Sonya McLean
Mon Jul 01 2024 - 16:43

A doctor jailed for eight years for the rape of his wife “failed to grasp the essentials and basics of consent”, according to a High Court judge.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt made the remarks in the sentencing of the 36-year-old Leinster resident who was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury of a charge of anal rape and false imprisonment at the couple’s then home on February 14th, 2019. The man had pleaded not guilty to the offences.

The court heard that the woman immediately reported the rape to the gardaí. She left her home once the man had fallen asleep, along with her young baby and went straight to the local Garda station.

The man was arrested the following month and told gardaí during interview: “I didn’t rape my wife. I get it everyday for free. I don’t need to rape my wife”.

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Justice Hunt said the remarks the man made to gardaí during their investigation seemed to imply that the man believed that “marriage carries some kind of blanket consent to whatever he wants to have in terms of sexual activity”.

“This is not the way marriage works. Consent on a Tuesday does not mean consent on a Wednesday,” Justice Hunt continues.

The judge said there was a common thread in the sexual offence cases that come before him of “extraordinary recklessness towards consent in sexual matters” adding that there is “an extraordinary lack of care and respect that seems to exist”.

Referring to the man’s profession, Justice Hunt said the fact that someone in a caring profession “would treat someone so close to him in this manner would defy belief”.

Justice Hunt set a headline sentence of ten years after noting the aggravating factors included that the offences took place in a domestic context. He also noted that the man has not recognised the jury’s verdict or the effects of the crime on his wife.

He imposed a sentence of nine years and suspended the final year of that sentence on strict conditions including that the man have no direct or indirect contact with the woman for an indefinite period unless she initiates it.

Justice Hunt also ordered that the man engage with the Probation Service for two years upon his release from prison.

At an earlier sentence hearing, a local garda told James Dwyer SC, prosecuting, that at the time of the offence, the woman had an interim barring order against the man which had lapsed.

She went to bed that night with the couple’s young baby and woke to find the accused looking in her bedroom door, summoning her to come into another room.

He asked to see the barring order, before he tore it up and told her she was going to be punished.

The man then took the woman to another bedroom and told her to a video call a man. He produced a dumbbell and ordered her to take off her top, photograph herself and send it on to this man.

The woman asked to be released so she could go to the bathroom but the man refused and the woman ultimately urinated on herself.

He laughed at her, insulted her and instructed her to undress and kneel onto the bed before he anally raped her.

Afterwards, he instructed her to get dressed and make him some food.

When he fell asleep, she changed her clothing, took the child, left the house and went straight to the local Garda station to make a complaint.

Gardaí interviewed the man the following month, during which he asked gardaí if it was an offence to rape one’s wife.

He claimed he had been in a loving marriage with the woman since the previous year and said all activity between them was consensual.

The man said that his wife had found out he was having an affair and ever since then he claimed he could not do anything without her calling the gardaí.

The garda accepted in cross-examination from Seamus Clarke SC, defending, that the man is on medication for a recurrent depressive disorder and had previously been diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

A victim impact statement from the woman was read into the record. She has since left Ireland.

She said there were “no words to describe the scars left by him”.

“No woman should be made feel so unsafe that she feels a need to run away in the middle of the night with her wee baby,” she continued before she added that the man “should have protected us”.

Mr Clarke handed in a booklet of character references and said the case had “brought shame on him and on his family”.

Justice Hunt interjected and said the man’s family had no reason to be ashamed. “He has to take responsibility for his own actions,” the judge commented.

Mr Clarke said his client had written a letter “expressing remorse” and asked the court to take into account the consequences for his client of losing his profession.