Jury finds man guilty of raping woman in Cork
A man has been convicted of ambushing a woman in the public toilets of a Cork town and subjecting her to half an hour of rape and sexual violence.
The 30-year-old woman was running errands in the town and was washing her hands at the sink when she was grabbed from behind by Przemyslaw Jakubowski. He forced her into a cubicle and raped her for half an hour before fleeing.
He was wearing women’s underwear at the time which were later found in his apartment by gardai. After his conviction the jury heard he has a previous conviction for attempted rape in another country and that there will be further details of this when he is sentenced next month.
Jakubowski (aged 36) who is originally from Poland but had arrived in Cork shortly before the attack, was found guilty by a Central Criminal Court jury following three hours of deliberations and a twelve-day trial. He held his head in his hand and muttered to himself as the verdicts were read out.
The jury heard that the victim’s DNA was found under his fingernails and on a pink, blood-stained slip which he was wearing at the time. Jakubowski’s DNA and fingerprints were also found on a beer can which had been left at the crime scene.
The woman recounted to Gardaí that her attacker had a box of Marie Clare Tights held in the waistband of the women’s underwear he was wearing. Jakubowski had earlier been spotted in the town buying the same brand of tights twice. When confronted by investigators he claimed he had bought them as a present for his girlfriend.
Jakubowski of Egmont Court, Earls Street, Kanturk, County Cork had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to twelve counts including rape, oral rape, anal rape, threats to kill, assault causing harm, sexual assault and false imprisonment during the attack on the woman on the afternoon of March 9, 2010. He was convicted on eleven counts and found not guilty by direction of the judge of one count of oral rape.
During the trial the court heard a pot of boiling water was thrown over Jakubowski while he was in custody in Cloverhill prison. Proceedings were adjourned for a day over fears his visible burn injuries could prejudice the jury against him.
After delivering their verdict, the jury of four women and eight men were thanked by Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and excused from further service for ten years. Jakubowski was remanded in custody until June 27 for sentence.
Mr Justice McCarthy ordered a victim impact report be prepared and that Jakubowski be registered as a sex offender.
