Mohamed Okda sentenced to 10 years in prison for rape and sexual assault

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

Mohamed Okda was sentenced to 11 years in prison, with the final year suspended, for two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. Mr Justice Michael Moriarty imposed the sentence on 23 October 2017. The proceedings were reported on 23 October 2017.

Okda had pleaded not guilty to all three charges, which related to a flat in Dublin city centre on 9 February 2014. In July 2017, after a seven-day trial at the Central Criminal Court, a jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts on all counts.

The woman told the court that she had become separated from her friends on a night out and was upset when Okda offered to help her find them. She said he suggested returning to the flat so she could keep trying to contact them, and that he raped her there.

At an earlier sentence hearing, defence counsel Ciaran O'Loughlin SC said Okda's position was that two people were in the flat when he returned with the woman. Counsel said the men had not been interviewed by gardaí, which was of considerable concern to Okda, and that his client did not accept the guilty verdict.

Mr Justice Moriarty described the convictions as extremely serious. In suspending the final year, he acknowledged that prison was more difficult for foreign nationals and that Okda had claimed he was threatened in custody. The judge backdated the sentence to July 2017, when Okda entered custody.