A man who carried out a “shocking, brutal and cowardly sexual assault” on an “unsuspecting woman” walking her dog in a Cork park has been jailed for six years, reports Breaking News.
Vadim Veste, 28, of Clancy Street, Fermoy, Co Cork, Moldovan-Romanian dual nationality, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to sexually assaulting a woman in her 50s at St Colman’s Park in Fermoy on November 7, 2021.
In an earlier hearing at the Central Criminal Court in Cork, the court heard that West had traveled to Ireland just 18 days after being released from prison where he was serving a sentence for raping a minor.
Veste served a three-year prison sentence in July 2016 for raping a 14-year-old girl in Eastern Europe, reports Breaking News.
He was released from custody on December 11, 2020 and traveled to Ireland to live with his mother on December 29.
Sentencing Veste on Monday, Judge Paul McDermott said it was a “shocking, brutal and cowardly sexual assault which was violent, degrading and humiliating and left the woman with nasty injuries”, reports Breaking News.
He said the woman was walking her dog on a dark evening around 6pm when she was forcibly dragged to the ground.
He said Vest used the hat as a gag to keep the woman from crying and used his knees to hold onto her shoulders. He touched her vagina outside her underwear.
The judge commented on the woman’s bravery in fighting Vest, who scratched his face and neck, bit him and kicked him. She was also shouting, which attracted the attention of two young Poles who rushed nearby to come to her aid.
Judge McDermott noted that DNA from the vest was later found under the woman’s fingernails.
It set the original sentence at nine years before taking into account mitigating circumstances in the case, including the man’s expression of remorse, reports Breaking News.
However, the judge said the probation officer’s report raised serious concerns as he believed it showed “a lack of insight and acceptance of what he has done” about the sexual element of the offence.
Judge McDermott ordered the man to stay away from the victim or her family and banned him from supervised access to children.
After his release he placed him on six years of supervision “for the protection of society and to prevent future offending”, reports Breaking News.
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