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A CARLOW MAN who raped and seriously assaulted a woman in her 50s leaving her with life-changing injuries from which she is unlikely to recover has been jailed for 18 years.
Anthony Cassidy, aged 34, attacked his victim as she was walking to a shop in the early hours of the morning.
A local garda said extensive CCTV footage, which was shown in court, tracked Cassidy’s movements to and from where he dumped his unconscious victim on the outskirts of the town.
She said there was no footage of the incident, but grainy CCTV imagery showed a male dragging another person to the location where the victim was discovered 12 hours later.
The court heard the victim has no memory of the attack.
Cassidy, a father-of-one with an address at Tinryland, Carlow, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape and assault causing serious harm to the woman on 25 June 2017. He has 34 previous convictions, including soliciting for sex in the UK and two assaults in this country.
Justice Patrick McCarthy said by “anyone’s yard-stick” the offence fell into the most serious category and noted that “in the context of the evidence” Cassidy would have been convicted with “virtual certainty”.
He said it was “obvious” that Cassidy had followed the victim. He concluded therefore that there was “a substantial degree of pre-meditation” after noting that the footage showed a woman “in a helpless situation” being carried or dragged.
“She was simply left there,” Justice McCarthy said after stating that Cassidy made no effort to tell anyone and the attacker “appears to have returned home”.
Forensic evidence
Justice McCarthy said the forensic evidence made it quite clear that the victim had been raped before he added that Cassidy seemed to have had “a straightforward desire to impose gratuitous violence” in addition to violating her.
He said the woman “suffered extreme brain injury” with devastating and long-term consequences after noting that she has mobility difficulties and has isolated herself from society.
“She cannot wash herself, or use the toilet herself and her room for improvement is modest. It is very unlikely she will make a full recovery,” Justice McCarthy continued.
He said from the woman’s victim impact report it is clear that she suffers from nightmares and said she described herself as a broken woman.
The judge quoted from the woman’s victim impact report in which she stated that she intends to “scrape together the little bit of dignity I have left and do my best to enjoy the rest of my life”.
He said that the woman’s daughter had also written a victim impact statement on behalf of the family in which she stated that Anthony Cassidy had ruined all their lives.
“You have broken our lives but we are strong and we won’t let you ruin our lives any more than you have,” the judge said quoting the woman’s statement. He added that the victim’s daughter has been coping as best as she can “with the dreadful situation she has found herself in”.
Justice McCarthy said the “starting point” for sentencing Cassidy was imprisonment for life but he added that he must take into account his plea of guilty and expression of what he considered “genuine remorse” before he sentenced him to 18 years.
Evidence from last month’s sentence hearing
The garda told Conor O’Doherty BL, prosecuting at a sentencing hearing last month, that the victim was found unresponsive with her top pulled up to her collarbone and her trousers partially removed.
Subsequent medical reports showed she had been beaten around the head and neck area, leaving her with serious injuries. The court heard she spent weeks in intensive care in hospital.
The garda said that after his arrest Cassidy initially denied meeting the victim, telling gardaí: “I wouldn’t rape a woman, I’d pay for it in a brothel before I’d do that”.
When DNA evidence linking Cassidy to the victim came through, he then admitted hitting the woman about the head with his fist but said he couldn’t recall any sexual encounter.
In a victim impact statement read out by her daughter in court, the woman described how she was now completely dependent on her family for assistance.
“I need so much help in all areas of my personal care, [Cassidy] has taken my privacy then and now,” she said.
She described the ongoing physical pain, immobility and night terrors following the attack, saying: “Every time I close my eyes my assailant haunts me”.
Beating me nearly to death was bad, but raping me makes me feel used and dirty.
“He left me there to die, he wasn’t sorry, he could have left my body to be found or rang anonymously”, she added.
Addressing Cassidy at the end of her statement, the woman said: “Your act of pure evil stole so much for me but after today I am closing the door on this”.
The woman’s daughter told the court that the first time she heard her mother whispering her name following the attack was “like winning the lotto a thousand times over”.
Addressing Cassidy, she said that her mother has been given “a life sentence of feeling dirty, feeling shame, feeling not good enough”.
Letter of apology
Colman Cody SC, defending, submitted to Justice McCarthy that his client had written a letter of apology in which he “prayed to God” he could go back in time and undo his actions.
Reading from the letter addressed to the victim, Cassidy said he realised “no words can undo the damage that I caused you and your family”.
He said he prayed someday the victim could forgive him and that she would make a full recovery.
Cody asked the judge to take into consideration his client’s genuine remorse and the fact his early guilty plea had not compounded the victim’s ordeal.
The court heard that Director of Public Prosecutions deemed the assault offence as on the “exceptional upper level” of the scale of seriousness and the case warranted a sentence above 12 and a half years and up to life in prison.
The attack
The garda told Doherty that the victim’s daughter didn’t find out about what happened until gardaí phoned her the next day.
The owner of a premises outside the town was entering the property when he saw a shoe on the right side of the kerb. He then saw a leg and realised this was a body.
The witness saw that the victim had one leg removed from her trousers and her upper clothes pulled up to her collarbone.
He also noticed bruising and blood on her face and immediately phoned gardaí, who were able to establish her identity from her phone and bank cards at the scene.
The woman was taken to the hospital, where she spent weeks in a high dependency unit.
A specialist neurologist has reported that the woman suffered a “multifocal brain injury” which had led to significant problems.
This doctor concluded it was “very unlikely” the woman would make a full recovery and that she would need lifelong assistance and support.
Forensic experts found Cassidy’s DNA on his victim’s body and at the location where she was discovered by a homeowner the following day.
She told Doherty that the victim’s DNA was also found on his underwear and a stain on his jacket cuff.
She said he had been identified as a suspect after she and colleagues viewed CCTV footage from 36 different premises. She told the court he was interviewed on eight occasions after his arrest.
Since the foundation of the state, State run children’s homes, or those run by religious organisations, have been used as handy take away by the pedophiles in both church and state.
And Enda Kenny buried the reports into the abuse for 75 years.
I wonder why.
The report was sealed for 75 years yes. Some wanted the documents destroyed v some saying they should be kept. Over 16000 applications for compensation have been received, with over €944 million rightly paid as some small compensation. Abuse support groups were very divided on the reports/ documents being “buried”. I think a shorter time frame would have sufficed – but you grossly oversimplify and ignore the very sensitive nature of the situation.
@Charlie Wrex: When you’re lived it Charlie,and know people close to you whose lives, those still living, that is, have been blighted by what they have suffered at the hands of those put in charge of them, then talk about sensitive.
Keep your lectures to yourself.
Did you ignore, or just miss the point, i made Dave? Its precisely because peoples lives have been blighted by their horrendous treatment at the hands of these monsters, that the issue of how to deal with the evidence gathered arose. Im sorry you feel lectured to. Lastly, youre assuming i dont have aged relatives that were subject to abuse. Never do that Dave.
@Charlie Wrex: The reports should never have been buried Charlie. They are ultra- sensitive to those who carried out the abuse. Those abused had huge problems getting anyone to believe them at the time. The issue of how to deal with the reports is down to PCism and the offence industry.
You did lecture me. And i’ll comment how i like, do not tell me what i can and can not do.
When youve calmed down Dave, youll appreciate that not everyone agrees with you. A number of advocacy groups have diametrically opposite views on what should have been done. Your comment about “PCism” and “the offence industry” is genuinely beneath contempt. I told you to never make assumptions – which you did. Im glad you still havent grasped the point i originally made.
@Charlie Wrex: What is beneath contempt Charlie is the secrecy that always surrounds this abuse, and keeps the abuse going, safely for the abusers. That’s why reports are buried.Your original point? I ignored it. I’ll make all the assumptions i want. I really don’t know what to say about advocacy groups. Some are useful, while some are making a good living out of the misery of others.
I wouldn’t let them pull my trousers down Charlie. So i got beaten black and blue instead. And when my mother went to the school to ask about why i was always getting bruised and hurt, they had witnesses to say i was always causing fights.
You really shouldn’t make assumptions Dave particularly in light of what youve shared here. I appreciate your honesty. Unfortunately my elderly relation was unable to stop her abusers so she was continually sexually assaulted and beaten if she made a sound. I completely agree with you regarding secrecy and the silence surrounding and protecting abusers. We will agree to disagree regarding the reason behind the “burial” of the report though. I take your point and can understand why you have that view. The lid is off and we have seen people like yourself and my relation be able to express their pain anger and despair. The restitution is something but can sadly never undo what has happened. We can only hope that anyone being abused physically sexually or emotionally can find the strength to come forward. I wish you well Dave.
@Charlie Wrex: Fair enough Charlie.It’s one of those things that can raise different emotions in people. It make me very angry and i shoot from the mouth at times.
@Dave Doyle:well the untouchables no matter what wrong is done
Enda buried the reports for 75 years? Enda is in his 60s so your comment is nonsense. Truth be told, Enda wept in the Dáil for the Magdalen slaves and he now invites the leader of the Church that perpetrated their incarceration to visit a cash-strapped Ireland while the Magdalen slaves still await redress. Time to fire Enda and to refuse to fund Francis’s junket! Where stands the Independent Alliance? Will rent-a-crowd Paul Murphy stand up and be counted? Will Claire Daly and Mick Wallace?
No commenting on the DOB article, has anyone seen the “Clinton cash” documentary?
Hillary Clinton is an icon to the Irish left and most who comment here.
@Keith Mitchell: You just don’t have a clue, do you.
Dave Doyle admirer of brutal tyrannical dictator Fidel Castro you do not have a clue or any form of moral compass.
@Keith Mitchell: A supporter of a government that will see 2,500 children homeless this Christmas talks about a “moral compass”.
Hypocrisy coupled with ignorance.
No comments pussies
Reference to DOB article. Sorry
We obviously can’t be allowed to comment on the true ruler of Ireland. What a joke that he can effectively gag a government. What a joke that the country has evidence of his corrupt dealings and won’t take any action against him.
Why can ya never comment on that clown and all his bogey dealings ..#DOBISACLOWN
… and here we go again.
Will anyone loose their jobs. NO
No but they will be sorry and “take full responsibility”. Isn’t that enough?
Have faith… they have “… started implementing a number of measures designed to protect children”.
I would have thought having a few measures in place to protect children would be pretty important in a children care home alright.
Oh and “no new admissions are accepted until it is satisfied it can deliver the care needed.”
So presumably, beforehand, they were just taking anyone in, regardless of whether they could provide the services they needed…
Thats great, really top notch people doing these jobs.
And the Church organisations do not fully comply yet, and they get away with it! Their leader Francis is coming here at our expense, at Enda’s invitation, while homelessness increases, the sick go unaided and victims await redress!
They are only ever sorry when they are caught.
Every week or so there is another horror story from Tusla, every week I comment, nothing changes.
Only this is not exactly a “Horror Story” because we are not being told anything, so let me guess;
- As a child in Irish State “Care” is 6 times more likely to die than had they been left with their parents, I’m guessing a child died in “Care”?
- As a child in Irish State “Care” is 10 times more likely to commit suicide, I’m guess some unfortunate child committed suicide?
- Also possible that a child was raped because children in Irish State “Care” are 6 times more likely to be sexually assaulted.
- Maybe a child went “missing” from “Care” and was later found working in a brothel? Not a stretch given that 500 went “Missing” from Irish State “Care” and were later found in brothels around Europe.
It’s amazing the hatred that some people reserve for the Church, when in fact children were FAR safer in those institutions than they are today in Tusla “Care”. The HSE wanted rid of Child Protection as it was giving them a bad name, so Fanny Fitz stepped in and took the same 4,000 incompetent staff and gave them a new name. She went further, she increased the staff and the budget and even made it easier to take children and forcibly adopt them.
The idiotic Irish Public were duped by the Child Abuse Industry into giving away their parental rights to an incompetent Tusla. They didn’t pull a magical set of Children’s Rights out of thin air, they gave the rights to Tusla which they removed from parents under Art 42. They even removed children’s rights which will now be determined by Tusla, yes the same people mentioned in the HIQA report.
It has only been a recent development that HIQA can inspect these facilities, but their powers are very limited. It would therefore take a very serious incident to come to light before HIQA found out about it. HIQA do not have the power to delve into why a child came into “Care” or be allowed to determine whether the child would be better off at home. In fact the Minister for Children is equally clueless as she is not allowed by law to know what is happening in any case. No TD or Senator is allowed to know by law and none of them with the exception of Mattie McGrath TD have ever set foot in a secret family court. In fact if a child is raped in Irish State “Care”, Gardai are not allowed to investigate. No government body should be allowed to operate with a level of secrecy that the KGB, Stasi and Mafia would be envious of, but this is how Tusla operates. Tusla also investigate themselves and never find that they have done anything wrong or illegal.
I have some faith in HIQA, but they are gagged by law from saying “anything to anybody” about what failings they witnessed here. If a child died in this horrible place, the parents of the unfortunate child are also gagged. This came to light when the family of Daniel McAnaspie were refused Daniels files by Tusla. Tusla claimed in court that the In Camera Rule still applied in his case, but he family argued; “How do you protect a dead child?”
Well that’s all from me folks, see you next week when another child dies in State “Care”. I’ll rant and rave as I usually do and you’ll forget all about the unfortunate child until the next child dies and we’ll keep this up until a child is dying every day in Irish State “Care”. The system has doubled in a decade and eventually Journal.ie will have to appoint 1 journalist to cover these horror stories on a daily basis. Until of course Ryan Report Two is convened and then we can all pretend we never knew what was happening.
@Joe Burns: Thank you Joe.
Hear hear
Usually HIQA pull no punches on their reports, that doesnt seem to be the case here with scant details on this care centre. Why is that, has HIQA been turned too.
“A significant period of crisis” – How long was this period?
“The failings led to children at the centre coming to significant harm ” – Specifically, what was the harm caused by the negligence?
If this was detected early on how many staff would be on their third and final written warning and ousted from this CARE home thus ending the period of crisis and the threat of significant harm?
@Lazlo Saint Pierre: The soldiers don’t take kindly to taking the blame for the chiefs any more. Therefore no one gets fired, or all get fired.
If this was you or I we would be rightly up in court – why do Tusla get away with so much again and again and again??!!
@Kimurphy:@Kimurphy:because they seem to be imume from taking responsibility
Well well this does not surprise me nothing has changed in the last decade and a half this is shocking and nobody is ever held responsible also nobody was over what happened in the house of horror Newtown house Co Wicklow in 2001 .http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=175 And it’s still going on. What’s needs to happen is who ever is in charge need to be prosecuted then it might stop otherwise it’s going to go on and on .
Nothing new in Ireland.
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