An apprentice carpenter has been given a seven year sentence by Mr Justice Peter Charleton at the Central Criminal Court for raping a student near Waterford city centre. Wayne Drought (21), Churchtown, the Hook, Co Wexford, was found guilty on March 16th by a jury of four women and seven men, following a five-day trial.
The jury took less than two hours to convict Drought of raping the student on December 9th, 2004, and rejected his claim that they had consensual sex in a doorway after meeting at a Waterford city centre disco. Mr Justice Charleton said rape was an extremely serious offence which carried a penalty of life imprisonment. There was no mandatory minimum sentence and the judiciary had always set its own parameters in each case.
"Rape constitutes a savage attack on the bodily and psychological integrity of a woman. It overrides her right to privacy in the most intimate area of human relationships," Mr Justice Charleton said. "It discounts her personality by imposing a complete nullification of her existence as a sentient person who is entitled to choose where to place her affection."
Mr Justice Charleton described Drought's crime as "a horrible predatory attack on a young woman who was drunk" and was raped by him in a public place near her flat.