A man who repeatedly raped his unconscious wife with household objects has been jailed for 11 years in Ireland
- A Dublin man, 49, was found guilty of 11 charges of sexually assaulting his wife
A man who repeatedly raped his unconscious wife with household objects has been jailed for 11 years in Ireland.
The 49-year-old Dublin man was found guilty by a jury last month of 11 charges of sexually abusing his wife between January 2005 and September 2014.
Judge Paul Burns sentenced him to 12 years, but suspended the final year under several conditions, including the man's participation in a course on sexuality and consent, the Irish examiner reports.
The judge said it is difficult to convey what the victim experienced, both in learning about the abuse when she discovered the “humiliating and dehumanizing images” and during the trials, when the images were shown to juries .
She endured these trials “with enormous courage and dignity,” the judge added.
This comes after his wife condemned his 'sick fantasies' in a heartbreaking statement.
The 49-year-old man from Dublin was found guilty by a jury earlier this month of 11 charges of sexually abusing his wife at their family home between January 2005 and September 2014.
The shocked woman discovered that her husband of more than 20 years had repeatedly raped her while she slept after finding the 'horrific images' on his computer.
The abuse took place in the family home on unknown dates between January 2005 and September 2014.
The man continues to maintain his innocence, but the judge rules that his repeated rapes constitute a 'blatant violation of the normal trust between a married couple'.
The verdicts were handed down following a retrial earlier last month, after the jury returned not guilty verdicts on four counts in the first trial and could not agree on the remaining counts.
In her victim impact statement, which was read out by one of the investigating gardaí in the case, the 50-year-old woman said she did not know her husband was 'into porn', let alone using her for his 'sick fantasies' . '.
She said she suffered from anxiety, depression, insomnia and panic attacks in the aftermath of their marriage. She said she was facing financial problems and had to ask her family for money. “It was unbearable,” she said.
Since the shocking discovery, she said she has removed all memory of the man from her family home. “But I cannot erase the pain, humiliation and degradation he caused me,” she said.
In her statement, she also spoke of her shock since discovering the “perverted, indecent, horrible images”, saying it was “like a bomb went off” in her head.
Her statement was read out during the man's hearing at the Central Criminal Court on December 18. She added how many unanswered questions she still has.
'Why did he do this to me? How long had it been going on? How did I not know? Was he always like this?' she said.
The woman added that she felt as if she had been married to a stranger who had inflicted “the most horrific and violent abuse” on her.
The woman also thanked her family and gardaí for their help and support. She said she would begin the healing process now.
Her husband was found guilty by a jury of 11 charges of sexual abuse by “penetrating her vagina with various objects.”
According to the state, the woman was unconscious and unable to give consent when her husband committed the rapes.
A detective told Eilis Brennan SC, prosecuting, that the abuse came to light when the woman discovered images her husband had taken of her on his computer in March 2019.
She asked him to leave the family home and filed a complaint with the Garda Síochána. The couple was married for more than twenty years and has children together.