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A Co Cavan man who raped his acquaintance while she was sleeping in bed fully clothed has been sentenced to six years in prison, reports RTE.
Paul Clarke, 40, had denied the rape charge, but was convicted by a jury following a trial at the Central Criminal Court.
He claimed during the trial that the woman was making the allegation because she was looking for money which she had learned that he had inherited.
Clarke of Muff, Kingscourt, Cavan, was found guilty of raping the woman after spending the night in Co Meath on 11 February 2007 following a trial the previous October.
This was the second trial to take place after a jury was unable to agree on a verdict in the first trial.
The woman, then 22, was sleeping at a friend’s house after a night out with Clark when she woke up to find Clark raping her. She told the court she spent years trying to suppress what had happened to her before receiving counseling and going to Gardai in 2017.
Edward Ducey BL, prosecuting, told the court today that the woman gave consent for Clarke to be named in the reporting of the case, provided it did not identify her as she wished to remain anonymous.
Sentencing him today, Judge Karen O’Connor said the woman believed Clarke was wearing clothes when he decided to go to bed next to her.
She said that the woman herself was fully clothed, but later woke up when Clarke raped her. Her shorts, underwear, and pantyhose were all rolled together and unzipped by the bed. He asked Clarke to stop and he did, reports RTE.
Judge O’Connor said the woman should have felt safe at her friend’s house in a bed she had slept in many times before, “instead she was violated”, reports RTE.
They noted from the Victim Impact Statement that the woman later developed emotional eating patterns and suffered from anxiety. She was given medicines and attended counselling.
Judge O’Connor said the woman said she was looking for three things from Clarke: an acknowledgement, an explanation and a sincere apology.
Judge O’Connor said she read all the defense materials, including 15 character references and a psychologist’s report, which outlined problems with Clarke’s memory after a serious car accident in 2002, reports RTE.
The judge accepted that there had been consensual kissing earlier in the night, but said that it was her recollection of the trial that the woman had indicated at that stage that she was not interested in anything else and that the kissing ended at that point.
The judge also said she was “very conscious” of Clarke’s personal circumstances and commitment to his child and parents.
She also imposed 18 months of post-release supervision and returned the sentence to Clarke when he was first arrested in December last year.
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