Credible threats to kill were a feature of most cases of violent sexual assault coming before the Central Criminal Court, and particularly those involving strangers, a judge said yesterday.
However, Mr Justice Carney said the DPP's practice to date was not to lay a charge of a threat to kill in circumstances of a sex attack. The judge made his observations when he jailed a Westmeath man for three years for an aggravated sexual assault on a woman in her home on June 23rd-24th, 1995.
The young woman told gardai that the defendant made her invite him in for coffee after a night out. When she asked him to leave, he ripped her clothes, saying "You bitch, you bitch, you are going to have sex with me".
He also hit her, threatened to kill her and started to choke her. The defendant then stopped suddenly and apologised, saying he felt like throwing himself into the Shannon. She advised him not to and he left. The defendant admitted the offence when questioned by gardai. Mr Justice Carney said a threat to kill was an offence under Section 5 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997 and carried a penalty of 10 years' imprisonment.
He said he would bring it to the attention of the judges of the District Court that it is provided in Section 8.2 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1967 that: "If the justice is of opinion that there is a sufficient case to put the accused on trial for some indictable offence other than that charged he shall cause him to b e charged with that offence . . . and send him forward for trial."