Man sentenced to 10 years for rape of married mother who was lost on night out in Dublin
A man convicted of raping a woman he met after she became lost on a night out in Dublin city has been jailed for 10 years.
Egyptian national Mohamed Okda (aged 30) was staying in a friend's flat in the city in February 2014 when he met the woman in an upset state.
Okda, formerly of Coolfin, Rathdowney, Co Laois had pleaded not guilty to two counts of raping the woman and one count of sexual assault at a flat in Dublin city centre on a date on February 9, 2014.
Last July, after a seven-day trial at the Central Criminal Court, a jury took just under three hours to return unanimous guilty verdicts on all counts.
In her evidence the married mother said that she lived outside Dublin and was visiting the city with two female friends for a night out. At the end of the night she said she was drunk and tired.
She lost her friends and became upset because they were not responding to texts or phone calls. The accused man approached her and offered to help her find her friends, she said.
He suggested she come back to the flat where she could continue to try to contact her friends on her phone. She said once back in the flat he raped her.
She said she feared for her life during the attack and begged Okda not to kill her.
After it ended she ran out of the flat and waved down a passing taxi-driver who saw she was in distress and took her to gardai.
She told the court that she was now “a broken person” since the attack.
Today, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty said the convictions were extremely serious ones and a serious sentence must be imposed.
He said it was a particularly distressing case for the victim, who was not in court for the hearing.
He imposed a sentence of 11 years but suspended the last year of the sentence, acknowledging that prison is more difficult for foreign nationals and that Okda has claimed he was threatened while in custody.
Ciaran O'Loughlin SC, defending, said that his client was living in Laois but had moved to Dublin for work and went home most weekends but not the weekend of the offence.
He said his client wanted to better himself and had enrolled in an English course. The prosecution told the court that Okda had only attended at the course for three half days.
At an earlier sentence hearing, Mr O'Loughlin said that his client's position was that there were two people in the flat where he was staying when he came back with the woman.
Counsel said these men were not interviewed by gardaí and that this was of considerable concern to his client. He said his client doesn't accept the guilty verdict.
Mr Justice Moriarty backdated the sentence to begin when Okda entered custody in July this year.
In her victim impact statement the woman said she was lucky to have a supportive husband and that they were working to repair their relationship in the wake of what happened to her.
“My husband has to deal with the trauma of what happened to his wife,” she said.
“I often feel like I can't go on. For the sake of my husband and kids I get up every day and do my best to get on with life.
“I didn't walk away unharmed. I was once a happy person who loved to talk to people. Not a day goes by without feeling the weight of that night and what was done to me and what can never be undone.”
Okda has 16 previous convictions in Ireland dating back to 2006, none of which are for a sexual offence. They mostly involve driving offences, public order offences and theft.
