Limerick man jailed 18 years for six rapes

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

A 37-year-old Limerick man who cannot be named was jailed for 18 years after repeatedly raping his former partner and her teenage foster daughter. The proceedings were reported on 25 June 2018.

He pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to six counts of rape. The offences took place at a house in Co Limerick on the night of 10 September 2016.

The man broke into his former partner’s home and threatened her with a knife during the ordeal, which ended when he fell asleep the following morning. Her foster daughter was 16 at the time.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy described the case as one of the most serious sexual offence cases to come before him. He said the man had been in full command of his senses and did not attach significance to his drinking whiskey and taking cocaine.

Defence counsel Mark Nicholas SC said the amount of cocaine and whiskey the man had taken suggested he was outside normal thinking that night. He conveyed his client’s apology and asked the judge to consider his guilty plea and previous good character.