Man is jailed for nine years for `vicious' rape days before his wedding

A Roscrea man was jailed for nine years yesterday following his conviction in December of an "unprovoked and vicious" rape in…

A Roscrea man was jailed for nine years yesterday following his conviction in December of an "unprovoked and vicious" rape in which a young woman was almost choked to death.

Kevin Murphy (23), the father of a young child, maintains his innocence of the crime which was committed a week before his wedding. A garda had been asked to take the wedding photographs and he became involved in the rape investigation.

Murphy claims he is the victim of mistaken identity by the woman. His family are standing by him, believing he will eventually be exonerated, Ms Maureen Clark, defending, told the Central Criminal Court.

Mrs Justice McGuinness accepted that Murphy wanted to appeal the conviction and sentence but, she said, the court had to act on the jury's verdict.

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The attacker had choked the victim, bringing her close to death. "It's quite surprising she survived at all," Mrs Justice McGuinness said. "This was a particularly vicious and terrifying attack. A doctor gave evidence that the way the victim's eyes haemorrhaged indicated she was almost choked to death." She refused an application for leave to appeal.

A jury took just over three hours after a nine-day trial to convict Murphy, of Ashbury View, Ashbury, Roscrea, Co Tipperary, of rape, assault and choking the 25-year-old woman to enable him to rape her.

The offences were committed in Roscrea after midnight on September 4th, 1994. Roscrea had been full of people celebrating Offaly's win over Limerick in the All-Ireland hurling final.

Ms Clark said the victim had only been cross-examined on the issue of her identification of her attacker. The defence had not attempted to suggest the attack had not happened or that she had consented to intercourse.

She had been the victim of a savage attack but the defence had argued that gardai had incorrectly decided from an early stage that Murphy was the culprit, Ms Clark said.

The doctor who examined the victim told the trial: "She was very nearly murdered and is lucky to be alive." She said it had been a frenzied and violent rape, and the victim had been shown no mercy.

The woman's face was covered in blood, and she had marks to her neck indicating attempted strangulation. There was also bleeding into her eyeballs, a sign of choking, she said.

Witnesses who were near the scene of the attack after midnight described hearing a sound like "the wail of a banshee". They were frightened but did not see anything. They heard news of the assault the next day.

The victim told Mr Denis Vaug han Buckley SC, prosecuting, that she had walked over a bridge and been attacked under a lamp-post. She was dragged into an animal pound as she was walking to her parents' house shortly after midnight.

She got a good look at her attacker's face and recognised him as Murphy, although she did not know his name at the time.

She told gardai her attacker had blond hair and an English accent and came from the Ashbury area of Roscrea. She also said he had been in the local vocational school.

Sgt John J. Byrne and Garda Pat Keon, both of Roscrea Garda station, said they immediately thought of Murphy and went to the defendant's house. He agreed to hand over the clothes he had been wearing that night and to go voluntarily to the Garda station.

Murphy said he had been crossing the bridge in the general area of the rape at about the time it happened. However, he denied hearing or seeing the woman or being involved in the rape.

He told gardai: "I didn't see any girl, on my mother's life. If she was there I would have seen her."

The jury heard that forensic evidence linked fibres found on his clothes to the clothes worn by the victim. Dirt was also found in the ribbed elbow pads of the defendant's leather jacket and on his shoes. Mr Vaughan Buckley suggested the dirt had become embedded during the act of rape.

Murphy gave evidence and denied the rape. He claimed he agreed to go to the Garda station when he was told "an assault" was being investigated. He thought gardai were talking about a fight.

Murphy claimed mud had got on his clothes when he fell over railings while attempting to vomit after leaving a pub. The sergeant said the area was grassy and such a fall would have resulted in grass stains.