Frontlines: The Reality of Rape Sentencing

"I just want to sleep. A coma would be nice. Or amnesia. Anything, just to get rid of this, these thoughts, whispers in my mind. Did he rape my head, too?"
-Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak
Seven years...suspended. It was such a bizarre judgement that it stopped you in your tracks. When Niamh Nic Dhomhnaill, a 28-year-old former Dublin, heard the sentence handed down to her exboyfriend, Magnus Meyer Hustveit (25), in The Central Criminal Court last week, she went into a mild state of shock.
As she said on Newstalk the following morning, "I heard the words, but I don't think it sank in." Mr. Justice Patrick McCarthy had heard that NIc Dhomhnaill - who had been taking strong medication for an illness - had been repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted in her sleep by Hustveit. The facts of the case emerged only when Hustveit sent an email to his former girlfriend, confessing that he had been using her "body for my gratification" for nearly a year. There was absolutely no doubt about his guilt. The Norwegian national, previously of Leo Street, North Ciscular Road, Dublin, had actually pleaded guilty to one count of rape, and one count of sexual assault, between 2011 and 2012.
Handing down his judgement, Justice McCarthy said the most significant features of the case were the deceit, the repetition of the offences, and the effect on the victim. And yet he then suspended the seven-year sentence he handed down to Hustveit, meaning that the Norwegian walked out of the court a free man. This, in a country where citizens are regularly sent to prison for not having a TV licence!
In Hustveit’s favour was that he had actually admitted his guilt. When he announced the sentence, Justice McCarthy pointed out that he had to consider that there might have been no trial if not for his confession: “In truth, the case comes here today out of his own mouth.”
The court had heard that he had first met Nic Dhomhnaill in a Dublin city centre bar in 2011. They began a relationship, and moved in together later that year. During the course of their time living together, she says that she had serious issues with his use of internet pornography.
In 2012, she woke up to find herself wet with what she believed to be his semen. When she confronted him, Hustveit admitted that he had had sex with her while she slept. Although she told him it was a problem, she didn’t immediately end their relationship. A few weeks later, she woke with the feeling that she had been penetrated to find him masturbating to porn on his laptop beside her in bed.
Hustveit later admitted that he had regularly raped and sexually assaulted her in her sleep, often while she was under the influence of medication. She then broke up with him. In a subsequent email to her, which was central to the court case, he made detailed admissions including that he had raped her up to 10 times and that he had touched her in her sleep up to three times per week throughout their relationship.
Nic Dhomhnaill contacted the Gardai in June 2012. They immediately seized Hustveit’s laptop as evidence. In his email, he admitted that he had raped her, saying, “I guess it must be under 10 times.” He also attempted to explain his behaviour, telling her, “It is really difficult. I did it for short-term gratification. I convinced myself it was a victimless crime because you were asleep.”
He continued, “I didn’t want to hurt you, I just wanted to come. I used the fact I wasn’t allowed watch porn or masturbate as an excuse. Now I’ve written this, you can have me prosecuted. I hope you won’t.”
In the event, she did press charges. Whether or not she got justice is an entirely different matter. Widespread dismay has been expressed not just by Nic Dhomhnaill, but also by the Rape Crisis Centre.
Responding to the judgement, a shocked Niamh Nic Dhomhnaill – who had waived her right to anonymity – said that the suspended sentence sent out “the wrong message” to victims of rape and sexual violence, and that it would discourage anybody “who would even half consider going to the gardaí or through the courts” on the issue of sex abuse.
“There was no justice done today for me – but it is not just me,” she added. “There was no justice for others too whether they are male, female, LGBT, or any other type of victim of sexual violence. I waived my right to anonymity because I wanted to raise awareness.”
That there is a difference between Hustveit’s actions and those of a violently aggressive rapist has to be acknowledged. Nic Dhomhnaill herself explained that it had taken her two years to fully comprehend the magnitude of Hustveit’s crimes. “I’m left grappling with the knowledge that someone I trusted violated that trust regularly. I’ve lost everything you can claim to have or be. Above all, I’ve lost my sense of identity and self-worth.”
Meanwhile, the sentence has been heavily criticised by professionals working in the field of sexual violence. Ingrid Wallace is a senior therapist at Rape Crisis Midwest.
“This type of sentence really gives the message that Ireland is a haven for rapists, and that bothers me,” she told Hot Press. “It bothers me after 25 years of working in a rape crisis centre that we are still fighting the same battle. I mean, the sentence should reflect the sizable condemnation of the crime. I think giving a seven year sentence you would say that that’s reasonable – but then the judge has suspended it. “I mean, really and truly,” she adds, “he’s just walked out of that court with a slap on the wrist, ‘There, there, don’t be a bold boy. Weren’t you marvellous to come forward and to admit to everything? You don’t have to do any time in jail’. It is really, really upsetting and people might come into me after this and say, ‘Is there any point in reporting, will I go through everything that I’ve to go through – and at the end of the day he’ll just walk out the door?’” Wallace does acknowledge that by admitting his guilt, the rapist saved his victim from further trauma. “If somebody admits it,” she reflects, “you do spare the survivor the ordeal of the court case, and he would’ve got legal advice and been told that. I do think there is merit, and benefit, in somebody entering a plea and I’ve certainly seen that with clients of mine over the years. The stress of the court case is reduced if the alleged rapist does enter a plea, but, really and truly, to get a seven year suspended sentence is truly disgraceful.”
It’s a view echoed by Caroline Counihan, the legal policy director of Rape Crisis Network Ireland. “I have to say, no matter what way I look at this, I have to come to the conclusion that the sentence was unduly lenient,” she told Hot Press. “And I have to express my hope that the DPP will agree with me and will decide to appeal it on that basis.”
If that is to happen, it will have to be soon. “There’s a time limit here,” she says. “That needs to happen within 28 days. That would be, to my mind, the appropriate official response. And to be fair to the DPP, she’s pretty good about appealing sentences that she feels are unduly lenient, and she certainly gives very serious consideration to her decisions. There’s no doubt about that.”