Man given suspended sentences for assault and sexual assault

A man has received suspended sentences for sexually assaulting a woman and later violently assaulting her and a friend.

Stephen Kane (29) punched the women in the corridor of a Dublin apartment block after a late night party in August 2014.

Det Garda Aisha Fitzsimons told the Central Criminal Court that the women, aged in their early 20s, were invited to the party by a man they knew and that lot of alcohol was consumed by everyone.

At around 5am the two women and four men were left in the flat. One of these men later told gardaí­ he saw Kane and Daryl Ralph sitting on either side of one woman. He said Kane and Raplh kept trying to kiss her and put their penises into her mouth and that the woman kept trying to turn away.

The court heard Kane then stripped off and got on top of the woman before he and Raplh pulled up her dress and Kane was seen “humping” the woman.

One of the other men escorted the women out of the flat soon after and “a dispute arose” with Kane becoming aggressive. He punched the woman he sexually assaulted and then punched her friend twice before biting her.

Gardaí were called and Kane was arrested. He was released pending charge and then left Ireland for New Zealand. His lawyers told the court he then went to Australia and established a new life there, stopped drinking and got a job working on a large poultry farm. Four days before he was due to wed an Australian woman police arrested him to be extradited back to Ireland.

Kane, with a former address at Park West Point, Clondalkin, Dublin, pleaded guilty to sexual assault and two counts of assault causing harm on a date in August 2014. Ralph, of Ballyfermot Crescent, Dublin, previously received a suspended two year sentence after pleading guilty to attempted sexual assault.

Shame

In her victim impact statement, the woman who was sexually assaulted said she suffered flashbacks and experienced feelings of fear and shame over what had happened.

The other woman said the attacks turned a fun night into “a nightmare that changed my life” and that she became vulnerable and paranoid as a result.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott said the attacks were “a shocking and unexpected explosion of violence”. He said the sexual assault was demeaning and humiliating for the victim and that intoxication could not be an excuse.

He said he accepted as sincere Kane’s expressions of remorse and of abject shame for how he behaved. He described a payment of €10,000 to the court as a significant indication of Kane’s remorse.

Kane’s lawyers told the court that he had grown up in a violent home where he had to protect his mother from his father. John Fitzgerald SC said Kane began abusing alcohol and drugs as an adult and his behaviour rapidly deteriorated after he found his father following a suicide.

Mr Fitzgerald said that his client is a very different person now to the one who carried out the attacks six years ago.

Mr Justice McDermott imposed concurrent sentences of two years and 2½ years for the assaults and sexual assault. He backdated these to November 2018 when Kane went into custody.

He suspended the remainder of the sentence for two years on condition that Kane submit himself to counselling and address the causes of his offending.

He said the manner in which Kane has lived since the offending was a mitigating factor and the court heard his fiancee’s family are standing by him and had provided positive character references.