Man jailed for ‘ultra violent’ rapes of sex workers fails in appeal of conviction and sentence

A man who was jailed for 20 years for the “ultra violent” rapes of two sex workers on the same day has failed to have his conviction quashed and his sentence reduced on appeal.

Gheorghe Goidan (49), a Romanian national formerly of the Plaza Apartments, Tyrellstown, Dublin 15, but now a prisoner of Midlands Prison, had contacted the women via a sex workers’ website.

After arranging to meet them in hotel rooms, he pulled a knife and threatened them before repeatedly assaulting and raping the women in separate attacks.

He pleaded not guilty to rape and sexual assault at a hotel in Portlaoise on September 7th, 2017. He had also denied rape, oral rape and anal rape of a second woman at the Maldron Hotel in Galway city on the same day.

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He was convicted in May 2019 after a jury at the Central Criminal Court returned guilty verdicts on all counts. Sentencing Goidan to two consecutive terms of 10 years for each rape, Ms Justice Tara Burns described the offences as being “at the high end of the serious range”.

Admissibility of evidence

Goidan, who had pleaded guilty to robbing the two women, later appealed against his conviction and sentence. In papers submitted to the Court of Appeal, his lawyers argued that Ms Justice Burns erred in her ruling on the admissibility of evidence given by one of the complainants via videolink.

It was further argued the judge erred in refusing a request from the defence to sever the indictment, which resulted in the appellant facing a trial in respect of two separate complainants.

But in an ex tempore judgment delivered on Thursday by Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy – sitting with court president Mr Justice George Birmingham and Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy – the grounds for appeal against conviction were dismissed.

“We can conclude that the judge exercised her discretion properly,” he said.

Goidan’s appeal against sentence was similarly dismissed, with Mr Justice McCarthy noting that discount applied by the trial judge in respect of the consecutive sentences had been “entirely appropriate”.

Earlier this week, Patrick Gageby SC, for Goidan, said Ms Justice Burns had identified a headline sentence of 17 years for the sexual offences when a term of between “10 and 15 years” would have been more appropriate. He also told the court he believed the trial judge had given insufficient weight to the fact that his client had no previous convictions “of consequence”.

Shane Costelloe SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, told the court that both the conviction and sentence should stand.

He said the sentence imposed was “entirely correct” when the “level of violence and humiliation both women experienced” was considered.

“This was a man who used a website to identify vulnerable people, to rob them and inflict violence on them,” he continued. “On another day, with another judge, this man could have easily got 17 plus 17.”