A man has been jailed for 10 years for raping a woman on three occasions when she was sleeping in a “vulnerable state” after taking prescribed medication.
William Kavanagh (58), of Wolfe Tone Street, Kilmallock, Co Limerick, told the woman “her medication was dangerous” and that he “could have done anything to her”, the prosecution alleged during his retrial at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Limerick.
Kavanagh was previously arrested and charged with 20 counts of indecent assault and five counts of rape. He contested the charges at trial and was acquitted by a jury of the indecent assaults. The jury could not agree a verdict on all of the rape charges.
Following a retrial earlier this month, a different jury found Kavanagh guilty of three rape charges by a majority verdict.
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Judge Seán Gillane, with the victim’s consent, agreed to lift reporting restrictions so that Kavanagh could be named following the trial. He has previous convictions for breaching a safety order, harassment and criminal damage.
Outlining the facts of the case, Det Gda David Gee said the victim was taking prescribed antidepressants, a side effect of which was that she would “sleep heavier than normal”.
He said the woman went to bed on three occasions on dates in 2021 and woke to find the defendant raping her.
Prosecuting counsel Alice Fawsitt said the victim told Kavanagh’s trial that after raping her a second time he had a “smirk on his face”.
“She said (Kavanagh) told her that her medication was dangerous, he couldn’t wake her and he could have done anything to her,” counsel said.
The judge agreed with the prosecution’s view that Kavanagh’s “smirking” was his way of “belittling” the victim. He said the rapes carried out by Kavanagh, as well as his comments to the woman later, had made her “physically sick and disgusted”.
The woman said she “did not care” if she lived or died after being raped by Kavanagh and still has nightmares about what happened.
“Death would have been easier,” the woman said, reading from a victim impact statement. “He raped me while I was already in a vulnerable state. To this day, I struggle to be alone as I get intrusive thoughts bringing me back and reliving the rapes.”
Kavanagh was found guilty of raping the woman on occasions when she was prescribed sedative medicine, which the judge said was an aggravating factor and added to his level of culpability.
He said this had a particularly “egregious consequence” for the victim in that she became reluctant to take her prescribed medication due to Kavanagh “interfering with her in her sleep”.
The judge said the woman was in an extremely vulnerable situation at the time of Kavanagh’s offending.
Defence counsel Brian McInerney told the court his client continues to deny raping the woman and did not accept the jury’s verdict in the retrial.
“I have the clearest instructions that while he acknowledges the jury returned majority verdicts of guilty, he does not accept these verdicts and continues to assert his innocence,” McInerney said.
The judge said he was satisfied that an 11-year headline sentence was appropriate. After taking Kavanagh’s work history and the fact “he is not a young man, soon to turn 59” into consideration, he reduced the sentence to 10 years.
Kavanagh’s name was added to sex offenders’ register.
If you have been affected by the content of this story, the Rape Crisis Helpline can be contacted on 1800 778888.
