Rapist seeks to thwart victim’s bid to access €17,000, court told

A rapist is trying to frustrate attempts by his victim to get at a €17,000 award he got for an assault, the High Court has been told.

Darius Savickis, a Lithuanian national, orally raped a 23-year-old woman as she walked home from work in Galway on November 28th, 2005.

After he was arrested he absconded to Scotland, but eventually agreed to his return here where he pleaded guilty to the rape and was sentenced to six years' imprisonment in 2009.

Prison assault

While serving that sentence in Castlerea prison he was assaulted by a prison officer.

A High Court jury gave him just €225 for what happened to him in that incident, but the Court of Appeal found he had been assaulted and increased it to €17,225.

His victim then applied to the High Court for a freezing order on that award pending determination of her own action seeking damages against him for what he did to her.

Savickis’s lawyers oppose the application. In submissions to the court on the freezing order application, Conor Power SC, for the woman, said Savickis was refusing to supply an address on grounds of maintaining his privacy.

This was, it was submitted, an intention to dissipate the award and to frustrate efforts by the woman to enforce any judgment she may get against him.

The case resumes next week.