Latvian man convicted of rape of fellow national
A Latvian man who was convicted of raping a fellow national in a Dublin laneway over two years ago has been given a seven-year sentence by the Central Criminal Court.
Janis Esmits (aged 31), formerly of Kilkiernan Road, Cabra Dublin 7, had pleaded not guilty to raping and threatening to kill the woman at Fishamble Street on November 10, 2007.
A jury of five men and seven women found Esmits guilty on both rape charges but not guilty of making threats to the life of the victim.
Garda Fiona Morrison told Mr Alex Clarke SC, prosecuting, that the victim had met Esmits while enjoying her first night out socialising in Dublin city centre.
Garda Morrison agreed that Esmits brought the victim and her friend to a Store Street nightclub after she encountered difficulty getting into licensed premises without identification. Garda Morrison said that Esmits brought the women to the club as he knew the security working the door there.
The victim’s friend then went to another nightclub, leaving her with Esmits and a group of other Lithuanians.
After Esmits and the victim left the club around 1am, they walked to O’Connell Street before crossing the river in order to flag a taxi for the young woman on the quays.
Esmits tried to kiss the victim but she struggled with him and they both fell to the ground.
He then dragged her down a laneway to the rear of the Civic Offices on Woodquay, made her undress and raped her.
The assault was interrupted when passing gardaí shone their torches into the alleyway.
Esmits then spoke softly to the victim in Latvian, took her hand and began walking casually out of the lane only for the woman to break away and tell gardaí what had happened.
Esmits was arrested at the scene, but later told gardaí in an interview that he’d had consensual sex with the woman at all times.
Mr Giollaiosa O Lideadha SC, defending, told the court that although his client still maintained his innocence of the offence, he regretted the trauma asserted by the victim in the case and that he “never wanted” for her to undergo the trauma of a full trial.
Mr O Lideadha said that had Esmits had essentially lost his family in the aftermath of the case as the wife and mother of his three-year-old daughter had divorced him. He said that Esmits was now in protective custody as word had reached the general prison population that he had served time in an auxiliary police unit in Latvia.
Mr Justice Barry White said that it was clear that Esmits was a hard-working, industrious man of previous good character.
In sentencing Esmits to seven years, he acknowledged that prison life was far more difficult for a non-national but stated that it was clear from the victim impact report that the woman was deeply traumatised and now suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Mr Justice White refused an application to have part of the sentence suspended and ordered that Esmits be placed on the sex offenders register.
