Man found guilty of raping pregnant ex-partner
An English man has been convicted of raping his pregnant ex-girlfriend at gunpoint at her Co Clare home more than two years ago.
The 44-year-old man had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to three counts of rape, two counts each of anal rape, oral rape and threat to kill or harm and one charge each of false imprisonment, aggravated burglary and possessing a shotgun with intent to endanger life.
The accused pleaded guilty in December 2008 to assaulting the woman but denies hitting her with the gun. All the offences are alleged to have occurred at her Clare home on September 9, 2007.
The jury of seven women and five men took five fours to convict the man of rape, anal rape, false imprisonment, threat to kill and possession of a firearm.
The members failed to agree on a further charges of rape and anal rape but acquitted him of one other rape charge, oral rape and another charge of threat to kill.
Mr Justice Paul Carney had directed them to return verdicts of not guilty in relation to another oral rape charge and aggravated burglary. It was day 14 of the trial.
Mr Justice Carney thanked the jurors for their time and attention in the trial and remanded the accused in continuing custody until a date next February when the case will be mentioned before him.
The woman had told Ms Pauline Walley SC, prosecuting, during the course of the trial, that the accused had told her that night that he planned to go on a killing spree and shoot six of her friends.
She said in evidence that his plan was for her to knock on their door and when they answered he would shoot them with the shotgun he had taken from his cousin. He allegedly lined up the shotgun shells and assigned the name of a friend to each one.
She said that late into the ordeal he put the barrel of the shotgun in his mouth after saying he would rather die than go to prison.
She also described how he told her he was not going to kill her but was going to disfigure her with a Stanley knife so she would not be with any other men.
The woman told the jury that she had been in a difficult relationship with the accused since 2004 and they had broken up for the final time that summer. They had a child together and she was pregnant with their second.
She said she returned home from a night out and went to bed but awoke to see the man standing in the bedroom doorway with a gun.
He said he had accessed her phone records online and was angry at a text conversation she had with another ex-boyfriend.
While he was questioning her about this he punched her in the mouth twice, breaking her two front teeth and splitting her lip. She said he then told her he was going to shoot her and to say her prayers.
She said he kept telling her to look at the gun because she was “supposed to see the bullet coming out of the barrel”. She said he then jabbed her in the cheek with the barrel.
She claimed that over the next several hours he barricaded them in the room so gardaí could not storm in.
“He had lived in America for 20 years so his expectation of what would happen was very Americanised,” she told the court. She said he put the mattress in front of the window to stop “a SWAT team coming in”.
She said he detailed his plan of going to the nearby houses of friends of hers who he did not like, including her ex-boyfriend, and shooting them.
She claimed he said there was “time to kill” before he shot her friends and decided he was going to rape her to pass the time which he did after forcing her to undress at gunpoint.
She said in the early morning he became very tired and depressed and threatened to kill himself and disfigure her. She said she tried to keep him calm by assuring him she would not make a statement to gardaí.
He was also in phone contact with family members and they assured him he would not get in trouble but may go to a “mental hospital”.
The gardaí had by now become aware of the situation and arranged with the accused to have him put the gun in the back-seat of the car and then come out of the house with the woman half an hour later.
She said after he had handed over the gun he told her she could leave but she stayed because he was suicidal and she did not want to leave him alone.
She said they both came out together and travelled in the same car to the garda station. During the drive she said he broke down crying and she took his hand and comforted him.
