Wayne Drought was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for raping a student on Waterford’s quays in December 2004. The Central Criminal Court suspended the final 18 months, leaving an effective prison term of five years and six months, and imposed counselling, supervision and other conditions.
A jury convicted Drought on one count on 16 March 2007, after a four-day trial. In his sentencing judgment, delivered on 4 May, Mr Justice Charleton said the jury found that Drought raped the student on 9 December 2004.
The judgment records that the woman had been drinking at a party and later went to two nightclubs. Drought escorted her from a nightclub and accompanied her through Waterford city towards her flat. The judge said there had been at least one consensual kiss, but the contact had not gone further before Drought pushed her into a recessed doorway and raped her. The woman’s injuries, found in a hospital examination, were consistent with her account of being forced to have sex.
Drought did not testify at trial. He relied on statements to gardaí in which he claimed the encounter was consensual. The judge said he treated Drought’s contested account as untrue but did not penalise him for exercising his right to defend the case.
In considering sentence, the judge weighed the seriousness and effects of the attack against Drought’s age, lack of previous convictions, family background and work record. Drought was 18 at the time of the offence. A court-commissioned psychological report discussed two possible explanations, including that he had mistaken drunkenness for consent and that he had selected and forcibly raped a vulnerable, intoxicated woman. The judge said the latter scenario accorded with the jury’s findings, while stating that he would not impose a sentence for preventive purposes.
The victim impact statement described panic attacks, difficulty sleeping and concentrating, changes in her relationships and loss of interest in study. The judge said the attack’s nature and its effects warranted a sentence at the upper end of the normal range, while leaving scope for rehabilitation.
The final 18 months were suspended on conditions including a €500 bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, a sex-offender counselling course in prison, and 18 months of Probation Service supervision after release. The judgment said the suspended term could be activated following further serious offending during the relevant period. Drought was also ordered to register as a sex offender.