He pleaded guilty at trial.
A man who raped his pregnant partner in their bed six years ago was working for a local authority up until he was taken into custody earlier this month, a court has heard.
The 39-year-old man's partner managed to set her phone to record during the rape in which she could audibly be heard saying she was not consenting, the Central Criminal Court heard. She was five months pregnant at the time.
The man pleaded guilty to one count of rape on October 13, 2019 at an address in the Midlands after the woman gave evidence at his trial in Tullamore earlier this year. He was jailed for seven years today/yesterday.
Up until his sentence hearing last week when he was taken into custody, the man had been employed by a local authority, the court heard. He has one previous conviction for the sale and supply of drugs.
Sentencing him today/yesterday, Mr Justice David Keane said the recording of the rape, which was played at trial, was “distressing to listen to”. He noted the woman could be heard saying no repeatedly, asking the man to stop and crying during and after the rape.
He commended her for the “presence of mind” and “ingenuity” she showed in recording her ordeal, noting she was an “inspirational example of courage and resilience”.
The judge said the offence took place in the woman's home, in her own bed and was carried out by an intimate partner. “What should have been a place of safety and security was transformed in an instance to the place of a markedly brutish personal violation”.
He sentenced the man to eight years in prison and suspended the final year of the sentence on a number of conditions.
A local sergeant garda told the court that on the night in question, the man and his partner were socialising and he started drinking heavily. On the way home, he started acting erratically and the woman left him in fear and made her own way home, the court heard.
She was awoken by the man at around 5am when he got into their bed, pinned her down and raped her. During the attack, the woman managed to access her phone camera and press record. The court heard that nothing could be seen in the video, but the woman could be heard crying and saying “you're hurting me”.
Afterwards, the woman said she cried in the shower and kept tapping her tummy until she felt her baby move.
The woman went to gardaí the following year after the birth of their child and reported the rape. When the audio recording was played to the man after he was arrested, he said: “That doesn't even sound like me” and he denied raping the woman.
The man was granted access to their child and has a weekly visit in the woman's parents' house.
In her victim impact statement, the woman said that the matter had been hanging over her for years as the case was delayed twice in the courts. During this time, she said she was in constant fear of the man, who she said lived close by her for about a year after the rape.
She said she had seen him even more in the last couple of months since he pleaded guilty at trial and that “even after everything that happened” the man was granted visitation rights to their child.
She said he has shown no remorse for the pain and suffering he caused her, and she outlined anxiety, nightmares and sleeplessness since the attack. “It will haunt me until the day I die,” she said.
Michael Bowman SC, defending, said his client was under the influence of a considerable amount of alcohol at the time and has little to no memory of this “deeply unpleasant” attack on his then partner. He is in a new relationship for the past five years and this woman was in court to support him, the court heard.
A probation report before the court noted the man is at a moderate risk of re-offending.
The court heard he has been in “consistent employment” with a local authority for a number of years, and that he was working there at the time of the rape. A number of letters were handed into court from family members who outlined his difficulties in childhood.
Mr Bowman submitted that the man entered the guilty plea before the woman was cross-examined at trial.
He said the man has been committed to his child and provided him “emotional support” which will come to an end once he is in custody, defence counsel said. His family members have committed to continuing maintenance payments to the child, the court heard.
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