Man pleads guilty to raping woman in laneway

Sarah-Jane Murphy

A Mayo man who threw a woman across a laneway to avoid being captured on CCTV before raping her will be sentenced later this week.
The man (27), who cannot be named to protect his victim’s identity, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to raping the woman on May 16, 2015 in a Co Mayo town.
In her victim impact statement the 41-year-old woman told the court that the man bit her lip during the incident. “You wouldn’t do that to a dog,” she said.
The court heard the man was disgusted with himself and described the victim as ‘a lovely woman who didn’t deserve to be treated like this’.
A local detective garda told John Gordon, SC, prosecuting, that the woman did some shopping and visited various bars and a bookies on May 16, 2015.
The pair, who had known each other for a year, met by chance in a pub in the town and shared a cigarette and some drinks before visiting a takeaway.
The detective garda told Mr Gordon the man then ‘coaxed his victim into a laneway and forced her down onto steps in a very aggressive manner’.
The court heard the man then picked the woman up and threw her to the opposite side of the lane way in order to avoid a CCTV camera capturing the incident. The man told her he had a blade and would use it if she did not do what he wanted.
He forced her to engage in a sexual act and then raped her, the detective garda said. Following the incident he told her: “Tell anyone about this and I’ll slash your throat.”
The victim dressed herself and made her way to a nearby pub where she told the landlady what had taken place. Soon afterwards she flagged down a passing garda patrol car and reported the rape.
“She had bruising to her face, whiplash from being thrown and a small bite mark on her lip,” the detective garda told the court.
In her victim impact statement the woman said she was never as afraid in her entire life when the man brought her down the laneway.
“I was afraid of being killed, I knew I had to do what I was told. Afterwards he ran off like the coward he is. I didn’t deserve to be raped. I’ll never forgive or forget what happened that night,” the woman told the court.
Michael Bowman SC, defending, said the man made full admissions to gardaí and entered a guilty plea at an early stage.
“He is from a decent family and is now marked out forever in a small community as a rapist; that’s a significant stigma,” Mr Bowman said. Mr Justice Paul Butler deferred finalisation of sentencing until June 1.