Rape in Ireland: Two Horrific Sexual Assaults and Two Guilty Verdicts

Today was a day when the brutal treatment of Irish women by sex predators was revealed in the most horrifying way. In the Central Criminal Court, a Limerick man was handed a 17-year sentence for the rape and sexual assault of a young girl over 20 years ago. Meanwhile, in a separate case, a serial sex offender has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two women he met through Tinder.

In the first of these cases, RTÉ reports that Patrick O'Dea manipulated, groomed and isolated his victim when she was between 12 and 14 years of age, before he raped her in a graveyard. The then 28-year old was sentenced to 18 and a half years behind bars, with the last 18 months suspended on condition that he participate in the "Building Better Lives" programme run by the Prison Service.

Three years post-release supervision was also imposed.

"You weren't just there in a dark scary graveyard invading my body you were also there in the mirror when I looked at myself. I hated myself and the dirty person that you made me feel I was, that nobody cared about," the court heard in the victim impact statement, made by Leona O'Callaghan, who decided to forego her anonymity, in order to enable the public naming of O'Dea.

O'Dea is already serving a 15-year sentence for the rape and sexual assault of another young girl; and he has a conviction for the sexual assault of a third young girl. He was a serial predator and rapist.

Leona O'Callaghan also spoke of how the abuse caused problems in her later relationships and resulted in several suicide attempts. One can only hope that the decision of the court will enable her to open up a new chapter in her life.

In an unrelated case, also reported today, a Tinder predator, Patrick Nevin, pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of two women, after a legal ruling which would have allowed a jury to hear evidence about two other similar attacks carried out in the past. RTÉ court correspondents report that Nevin told gardaí he had "thousands of matches" and had met hundreds of women through the popular dating app, on which he was "a very active participant."

It was via Tinder that he met a woman, who made it clear she was not interested in a sexual relationship. He collected her and drove her to a remote location in Co Meath, where he raped her.

A similar assault occurred four days later, when Nevin drove another woman to a remote location in Meath, repeatedly sexually assaulting her, before throwing her out of his car on an isolated road. He then offered to take her home and sounded remorseful. However, he pulled the car over twice more and sexually assaulted her again.

A transcript of their conversation, which had been recorded by Nevin, was read to the court. In it, he verbally abused her and told her if she was a man he would "box the head" off her.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, his victim said that it was the worst night of her life and she has been left as a shell of her former self.

"Many times I would cry myself to sleep hoping I would never wake again," she said. "I will always question 'why me?' but I will probably never have the answer."

"I once told my counsellor that in a way I felt sorry for him and what must he have been through in life to make him turn out the way he did. I've always had empathy for people but he does not deserve any of it."

Nevin will be sentenced for these two attacks next month. He has denied a third offence of sexually assaulting a foreign student at UCD in 2014.

The guilty pleas, and the sentences passed today, will likely come as a small relief to the victims of what were horrendous assaults. But it's clear that more needs to be done to properly begin the work of protecting women from  violent predators.

Last week, the Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan announced a proposal for a new national survey on Sexual Violence, to be completed within two years. This will be 16 years since the Savi – Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland – report was published.

This seems like minor progress indeed, when, as was graphically demonstrated in recent weeks, we are still dealing with a legal system that deems it acceptable to use women's underwear as evidence of their willingness to engage in sexual activities.

Last Tuesday, Ruth Coppinger TD, made headlines at home and abroad when she held up a thong in the Dáil, in protest at the way a rape trial was handled in Cork. In court, the  defence had suggested that the victim's underwear (a thong with a lace front) suggested that "she was open to meeting someone and being with someone."

When someone stands trial for theft, is the victim's clothing inspected for its price-tag? Are they subjected to needless humiliation for "asking" to be mugged?

No. Yet, time and time again, victims of rape are forced to justify themselves. Many refuse to come forward, due to the gruelling nature of the treatment to which they will be subjected within the legal system – and frequently within society at large.

Hot Press' writer Roe McDermott sent waves through social media over the weekend with her bold article detailing her experience of sexual assault and the insidious socialisation within this country that shifts the blame onto the victim and, in turn, causes them to blame themselves, for such attacks.

"It’s fine though, because in my mind, I don’t really count the first two times I was sexually assaulted," she wrote. "I have a myriad of other excuses deliberately constructed with minimizing language that let me avoid acknowledging how many times I have been sexually assaulted; that let others avoid acknowledging how many times I have been sexually assaulted."

We see a similar pattern in the words of one of the victims in today's court proceedings.

"I feel tainted, dirty, stupid for meeting up with him in the first place," the court was told, in her victim impact statement.

As if the responsibility could in any way be on her shoulders for being the victim of a sexual assault.

It's thoroughly depressing that in 2018 we are still hearing about such horrific abuse as emerged in the stories these women told to the courts court today. It's depressing that in the centenary of women gaining the right to vote in Ireland, our voices are still so often silenced.

But it is in the reaction to such wrongs that we see hope. It is in the hundreds that gathered for the protests on Tuesday; in the courage of the women who had their stories told today; and in the resilience and strength of those refusing to let such grave injustices continue.