Written 2 years ago by Newsroom

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A drama teacher who raped a student at an Offaly school when she was around seven is due to be sentenced today.

His victim told the court earlier this week that she felt like she “was given a life sentence at the age of six’.

The accused is to launch an appeal against his conviction because a juror was allegedly ‘smiling and winking’ at Gardaí during his trial.

Defence counsel Colm Smyth SC told the sentencing hearing on Monday that he had nothing to say in mitigation because his client still maintained his innocence and rejected the jury’s verdict.

He pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape on a date between 1996 and 1998 but was convicted on both counts.

The victim, who is now aged 25, said in a victim impact statement that she felt humiliated and degraded throughout the trial process which she found ‘exceptionally difficult’.

She concluded that the rape hadn’t destroyed her and she was slowly learning to cope with the help of therapy.

Counsel for the DPP, Justin Dillon SC, said the offence was at the higher end of the scale of seriousness.

Mr Dillon told the court that the accused taught a drama class in the school but was not officially a teacher there.