Riedo killer admits 2007 rape
The Galway man who murdered Swiss teenager Manuela Riedo in October 2007 has now pleaded guilty to raping a French woman in 2007.
Gerald Barry (aged 29), of Rosan Glas, Rahoon, Galway pleaded guilty to orally and anally raping the 23-year-old woman near the GAA pitch at Walter Macken Road, Mervue on August 16, 2007.
He was declared a sex offender and remanded in custody for sentence later on these charges by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cloverhill.
Barry is serving a life sentence imposed on him on last by Mr Justice Barry White following his conviction by a jury of murdering the 17-year-old girl. The jury took two hours and 38 minutes to find him guilty following a seven-day trial.
Barry strangled Ms Riedo after having sex with her on a pedestrian walkway known as "The Line", close to the Lough Atalia area of Galway city on October 8, 2007.
Ms Riedo, who had only arrived in Ireland three days prior to that to study English at a language school in the city died from asphyxia and had a number of injuries to her head.
The jury of six men and six women took just two hours and 38 minutes to find him guilty of murdering her and also of stealing her camera and a mobile phone.
Mr Justice White also imposed two sentences of five years each for the theft charges concurrent with his life sentence on Barry who was described by Manuela's parents Hans Peter (aged 53) and Arlette (aged 50) as the "devil".
They expressed a desire that Barry would spend the rest of his life behind bars and thanked the Irish people for their support and for those who had sent flowers and cards to them along with the gardaí and staff at the Swiss embassy.
Detective Superintendent PJ Durkin told the court on that occasion that Barry had been in "trouble with the law" from an early age and had a long list of convictions.
They included five years for violent assault in connection with the murder of Tipperary man Colm Phelan in Eyre Square, Galway in July 1996; two years for another vicious assault which completely blinded an elderly man who was living at home; and a sexual assault conviction arising out of a complaint by Barry's ex-partner.
In an emotional victim impact statement read out in court following Barry's conviction for murder and theft, Mr Riedo said their only child's death had "taken the future away from us".
"I will never lead my daughter as a bride to the altar, and my wife will never knit baby clothes for a grandchild, and we won't have anyone to look after us when we are old," he said.
Mr Riedo recalled how Manuela's trip to a language school in Ireland was her first trip without her parents abroad.
"We had heard only good things about Ireland and thus we had no misgivings about sending her to this beautiful country," he said.
Mr Justice White told Barry when sentencing him that he agreed completely with the jury's verdict.
"I trust you have not been unmoved by the evidence of Mr Riedo of the devastating effect of your criminal behaviour on the family of your victim," he said.
Barry claimed in evidence in his murder trial that he had met the teenager on the evening of her death which he said was an accident and that he hadn't meant to cause her any harm. He admitted stealing her phone and camera.
