Father-of-two admits sex attacks on women he met on Tinder

A man previously convicted of sexually assaulting a student has pleaded guilty to carrying out sex attacks on two other women he met on the Tinder dating app.

The trial of Patrick Nevin (36) for the rape of a woman in a parked car at a location in Co Meath in July 2014 was due to begin at the Central Criminal Court on Tuesday morning. Nevin and the woman had met on the dating programme Tinder and the attack took place on their first date.

His last minute plea of guilty followed a legal ruling on Monday morning which would allow the prosecution to introduce evidence from two other women of Nevin attacking them on a first date.

The former UCD student was convicted by a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last December of sexually assaulting one of these women, a Brazilian student, after driving her to the UCD campus in south Dublin on July 23rd, 2014. He had denied the offence.

On Tuesday morning Nevin pleaded guilty to rape of one woman at Bellewstown, Co Meath on July 12th, 2014 and to sexual assault of a second woman at an unknown place in Co Meath on July 16th, 2014.

He was facing trial later this year in relation to the third victim. The three attacks over an 11 day period all followed similar modus operandi, a fact that allowed Ms Justice Eileen Creedon to rule that the jury would have been allowed to hear evidence of all the complainants.

All attacks took place when Nevin had met up with the women after talking to them first online. In each case Nevin picked up the women in his car on a first date and drove them to a secluded spot.

The father of two is in custody since his conviction last December but has former addresses at Dún Laoghaire and Dundalk, Co Louth. He will be sentenced on July 26th, 2018 when victim impact reports will be given to the court.

Patrick McGrath SC, defending, asked the court to order a report from a forensic psychiatrist for the sentence hearing.

At an hearing earlier this year another court heard Nevin has a previous conviction for rape from Denmark. He was a minor in 1999 when he was convicted of rape and aggravated rape.

During legal argument last week Nevin’s lawyers asked the court to order media organisations to remove reports of previous trials and offending. Ms Justice Creedon ruled against the defence application, saying the court was not satisfied there was a real risk of an unfair trial if the material was not taken down.

Prosecuting counsel argued the evidence of all three assaults was relevant to the case as a similar methodology was used. Ms Justice Creedon said the court had to strike a balance between the probative value of such evidence and its prejudicial effect.

She said because of the similarity in the modus operandi she would accede to the request to include the evidence.

Evidence of the two offences which Nevin pleaded to on Tuesday will be heard at the sentencing date next month.

The evidence of the Brazilian woman, now aged 35, was heard during the trial last December. She had just arrived in Ireland and wanted to meet Irish people to practice her English.

After some weeks of communicating with Nevin on the Tinder dating programme and on Whatsapp, she arranged to meet him. He told her he would take her to a place that had the “best coffee in Dublin” but Nevin later told gardaí he saw the date as a “hook up” for sex.

Nevin picked her up in his car, a blue BMW, and drove her to a secluded field on the UCD campus. The woman said his demeanour then “changed completely” and he became aggressive.

She said he became like “a monster”. She said that he attacked her and she was in fear of her life and thought Nevin was going to rape her.

After the jury in the December trial left the courtroom, Nevin told his lawyers “I don’t accept that verdict”.

In his closing speech Paul Burns SC, prosecuting, had told the jurors that they might feel the woman was naive, foolish and awfully stupid but that did not give anyone the right to attack her.

He said simply agreeing to meet someone does not make them fair game. He said the complainant was not looking for sex and at no stage did she show an interest in meeting the man for sex.

“Everyone has the right to say no to sexual advances. No-one is entitled to force themselves on another,” he said.

He said there was no reason for the woman to lie and it was highly unlikely that a woman would travel here, three years after the events in question, to mislead or make false allegations.

He asked why someone would subject themselves to what she had undergone in the courtroom, unless she was telling the truth.