A man from Co Westmeath has been sentenced to prison today for raping a young woman after telling her he was gay when he invited her back to his apartment.
48 year old Samir Mansour from The Lock, Market Point, Mullingar, Co Westmeath, attacked and raped the woman on January 8th, 2010.
The jury took just over six hours to convict Mr Mansour. Todays trial was a retrial which had been ordered by the Court of Criminal Appeal last year after finding that questions asked by a previous jury had rendered the previous guilty outcome unsafe.
The young woman who cannot be named, told the court that she had met Mr Mansour at a nightclub, she then told him that she was gay and that Mr Mansour replied that he too was gay before inviting her back to his apartment for a party.
The young woman went on to state that Mr Mansour then made her an omelette with a television on in the background showing half-naked women. It was then he told her his friends were not coming, and that “all gay people have sex together”.
She then told the court, when she tried to leave he went from quiet to terrifying grabbing her, he then forced her into a bedroom and raped her before later apologising and asking if they could still be friends.
The woman declined a lift home and raised the alarm on leaving his apartment. His sentence will be passed out on Monday.