A nurse who was raped by a doctor in Limerick faced her abuser in court on Friday and told him: “I got justice.”
Louay Kila (31), who worked as a registrar doctor at the University Hospital Limerick (UHL) at the time, was convicted of the rape and sexual assault of the victim on March 2nd, 2024.
Kila, a native of Morocco and with an address at Cois Luachra, Dooradoyle, Limerick, contested the rape and sex assault charges at his four-day trial, held earlier this week at the Central Criminal Court, Limerick.
However, a jury found him guilty of both offences by unanimous decision after four hours of deliberations on Thursday. The nurse said she wished to retain her legal right to anonymity but that Kila be identified. The court consented to this.
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On Friday, she faced Kila at his sentencing hearing and read her victim-impact statement.
“To my rapist, I stood up and I am holding you accountable for your actions and I got justice,” she said. “I hope to be an inspiration for any woman who has dealt with an incident like this and encourage them to stand up and hold their rapists accountable.”
The court heard Kila and the nurse both worked at UHL and encountered one another as part of a larger group while on a night out in Limerick city.
Later, at an apartment, where they and friends went, Kila had tried to force the victim to kiss him by holding her jaw open. She rebuked him and told him to leave her alone.
Later on in the night, the victim said she was “in shock” when she awoke to find Kila penetrating her with his erect penis. Kila also digitally penetrated the victim with a number of his fingers and continued doing so after she told him to stop.
After Kila left the apartment, the nurse told her friends. Gardaí were alerted and made efforts to try to track Kila down. He was arrested 20 days after the assaults.
Kila replied “no comment” to questions about the rape and sexual assault when interviewed by gardaí under caution.
Two months after the rape, Kila provided gardaí with a prepared written statement, claiming he and the victim had engaged in “consensual” kissing and digital penetration on the night.
In her statement to the court, the nurse said that before the rape and assault, she had been “excited” to be nursing at UHL. However, she “couldn’t return to work” after the night in question and she said she felt “physically sick” walking back into the hospital, where Kila continued working for a time.
“I was no longer able to work in that hospital or deliver effective patient care as I was constantly looking over my shoulder hoping that Louay Kila wasn’t nearby,” she said.
She said the HSE offered her a transfer to a different healthcare setting “and I felt I had no option other than to take this as Louay was still working as a doctor in UHL”.
Kila’s barrister, Liam Carroll, said Kila consented to being suspended from the register of doctors in Ireland in March, 2025. This was 12 months after he raped the nurse.
“This has had catastrophic consequences for his career,” said Carroll.
“He (Kila) could not work as a doctor afterwards, he has been in a form of purgatory, frozen in time, a non-national with no family here and prison will be difficult for him."
Judge Sean Gillane commended the nurse and said he would carefully consider her victim-impact statement. He adjourned sentencing and remanded Kila in custody to appear in court again for sentence next Friday.
- The Rape Crisis Centre 24-hour national helpline can be reached at freephone 1800 778888
