Chronic drug abuser with 153 previous convictions jailed for sexual assault at Luas stop

Sentencing the 35-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, at the Central Criminal Court today, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said the woman was sexually assaulted in the course of the robbery and felt compelled to undress to show she had nothing hidden on her person.

The court heard that the man held her legs open while a female co-accused searched inside the victim’s vagina.

He added: “It is most humiliating and degrading to be left in that condition. It’s how the robbery was carried out that elevates this case to a level that is nasty and frightening, either to experience on the part of the victim or to view by people living in the neighbourhood. This all culminated in a very nasty violent explosion against the victim at a Luas station”.

Before delivering the sentence today, Mr Justice McDermott said the woman was a vulnerable person at the time who was put in fear on the night and subjected to force.

He said a disagreement about drugs had ensued whereby €200 was taken from the victim. He said she suffered injuries from the attack and was rescued by a local man who chased off her assailants with a golf club.

Last month, the man, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the woman at Drimnagh Luas Stop, Davitt Road, Dublin 12 on January 26, 2023.

He had also pleaded guilty to stealing and putting the victim in fear of being subjected to force on the same occasion.

Last January, the man’s co-accused, a 49-year-old woman, who also could not be named to protect the identity of the victim, was jailed for three years at the Central Criminal Court after pleading guilty to sexual assault and robbery on the same occasion.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, the woman said she has since developed a fear of going outside, keeps getting flashbacks and is anxious of people, places and things.

She said she is not eating or sleeping and has “thoughts of self-harm” since the incident. She said she is seeing a mental health nurse in the Peter McVerry Trust.

The victim said she had a full relapse into the abuse of hard drugs and has had to move addresses three times since the attack. She said she keeps washing and cleaning herself and believes this is due to trauma from the event.

“It has caused me so much pain and has broken me physically, mentally and spiritually” she concluded, adding that she is currently on a detox from drugs.

Passing sentence today, Mr Justice McDermott said the penetration of the woman’s vagina was not down to the defendant but the other woman involved. However, he said there was “a pair of them in it”.

The judge pointed out that the assault could not have been carried out without the defendant and he had proceeded to assist in the sexual assault of the woman. He said the defendant was satisfied to engage in holding down the victim’s legs while a search was carried out on her private area.

“Essentially the pair of them abandoned any social constraints or norms. She was lucky that someone took the initiative and intervened to put a stop to it. There was a vicious element to this,” he added.

The judge said the offences occurred in circumstances where it was essentially intended to rob the victim but that sexual assault became “part in a strange way of the robbery process”.

The court heard that the defendant, who has been homeless for the majority of his adult life, has 153 previous convictions. They mainly relate to public order offences but also include possession of knives, theft and assaulting a police officer. None of his previous convictions are of a sexual nature.

The judge set the headline sentence at six years.

In mitigation, the judge noted the defendant’s mental health problems which date back to his teenage years and his history of schizophrenia.

The man was sentenced to four years in prison with the final year suspended for a period of three years. It was backdated to April 30, 2023.

At today’s sentence hearing, Garda Tom Waifer from Sundrive Road Garda Station detailed the background to the robbery. He told Monica Lawlor BL, prosecuting, that on January 26 he had answered a 999 call from a member of the public who was living close to Drimnagh.

Gda Waifer said he found a female who was upset and in a state of undress when he arrived at Drimnagh Luas Stop in Dublin 12.

The victim told gardai that she knew both her attackers and that they had ordered a taxi together. She said there had been an argument in the taxi and that the woman had dragged her out of the vehicle.

The victim told officers that her two attackers thought she had more money on her and had made her strip. The woman said she was terrified so she had stripped off her clothes but that some of them had been “ripped off”.

The victim told gardai that the man had stood on her neck and stamped on her head with his other foot. She said the man held her legs open whilst the female attacker searched inside her vagina. “They dragged me all over the Luas stop and said ‘I’ll kill you and f**k you in the canal’,” she stated.

She said the male attacker kept stamping on her head whilst the female punched her. The victim had €200 taken from her.

Gda Waifer said a man armed with a golf club came to assist the victim. He said the two attackers had left the scene and went in the direction of Inchicore.

The victim was examined at a nearby Sexual Assault Treatment Unit and was found to have many bruises and cuts to her body, including to her legs and head.

The man and woman were arrested in Inchicore and brought to Crumlin Garda Station.

Under cross-examination by James Dwyer SC, defending, Gda Waifer agreed that the defendant, who also suffers from a learning disability, was not “the leader in this enterprise”.

The garda also agreed that a witness had heard a voice saying “where did you put the drugs” and saw the victim undressing herself rather than being undressed.

He agreed that another witness heard a female voice instructing the defendant to hold the victim’s legs.

The witness further agreed that gardai were able to take a screenshot from the defendant’s phone which suggested there had been a phone exchange between the female attacker and the victim involving the purchase of drugs.

In his submissions to the court, Mr Dwyer said his client was someone who got involved with drugs at an early age, which may have precipitated his significant mental health issues and homelessness.

He said the defendant’s drug use got to such a level that his position in the family home was not sustainable. He said his client was hospitalised for drug induced psychosis in 2006 and was diagnosed with schizophrenia and hallucinations. He said his client was not responsible for the acts of physical penetration on the victim.

Mr Dwyer said the defendant wished him to express his apologies to the victim for this “horrifying crime”, where she was exposed to “such brutality in a public setting”. The lawyer said it was not something planned by him.

Counsel added: “If there is anything to distinguish this man from his co-accused, his role was not that of planner and leader and organiser, he was carrying out instructions being given to him”.