Waterford man jailed for two and a half years for sexual assaults

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

A 62-year-old Waterford man who cannot be named to protect the woman’s identity was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of sexually assaulting his girlfriend at their shared home in 2001. The Central Criminal Court heard that she had described the assaults as the worst experience of her life.

The judge said the offences were a serious breach of trust and had caused the woman serious harm. A Probation Service assessment found that the man showed no insight into the effect of his actions and that the violence was targeted, not impulsive. The sentence was backdated to February 2022, when he entered custody after pleading guilty.

The court heard that the woman reported assaults involving vaginal and anal penetration over five weeks. The man initially denied non-consensual sex in a police interview, but later admitted having anal sex when it was clear she did not consent. He co-operated with his extradition in 2020. The court was told that her learning difficulties and memory problems had made it difficult to progress the prosecution.