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THE JUDGE SENTENCING Faisal Ellahi for the rape of a young woman with Down Syndrome has said that the victim has had her whole life upended by the attack.
At a sentencing hearing today, Padraig Dwyer SC, defending, submitted to Mr Justice Tony Hunt that he didn’t know if the effects of the offence on the victim in this case were worse than that in other rape cases.
Mr Justice Hunt said he disagreed with this and said:
This goes beyond trauma. This victim’s life has been upended in the most radical way.
He agreed with Mr Dwyer that the victim had the support of a loving family to help her but said that “all of their good work has been set at nought”.
At a previous hearing last week the victim’s mother told the court that years of work building up the independence of her daughter were instantly destroyed when she was raped by Ellahi.
Ellahi was convicted last December of raping and sexually assaulting the woman after luring her back to his apartment when she became separated from her mother near their Dublin home.
Ellahi, who is originally from Haripur in Pakistan, pleaded not guilty last year to rape, sexual assault and having sex with a mentally impaired person at his Dublin home on 12 June 2013. The jury was not required to deliberate on the third count if it convicted him of rape.
No previous convictions
The court heard he continued to deny the charges and maintained his position that he did not know the woman had Down syndrome. He has no previous convictions in this jurisdiction and gardai are unaware of any convictions in his native country.
Mr Justice Hunt agreed with counsel that this case involved a single incident of rape, unlike cases of multiple rape or rape over a prolonged period of time which Mr Dwyer presented to the court.
But the judge added: “The effects of [that single incident] are horrendous way beyond the normal range of the offence because of the victim.”
Low IQ
Mr Dwyer told the court that he was seeking a psychiatric report for his client to deal with an issue over his client’s IQ level. Mr Justice Hunt listed the case for mention on 2 February to allow time for this report to be prepared.
He previously told Ellahi’s counsel that any prospect of a partially suspended sentence would be contingent on him agreeing to be deported to his native Pakistan on his release.
Mr Dwyer said he had discussed this with his client and that Ellahi is willing to enter a bond to leave the country. The judge said he had not intended to extract an “undertaking” from Ellahi and said all options were open to him.
“He can enter a bond and clear off,” the judge said today.
‘Punishment fetish’
Counsel told the court that most cases of rape do not attract sentences of more than 10 years. The judge said whether this is correct or not is “another day’s work”.
He noted that the Oireachtas sets a range of sentences up to life for rape offences. Using the example of a maximum sentence of 10 years for the offence of dangerous driving causing death, he said judges “never impose the full sentence”.
He later told counsel: “I don’t have a punishment fetish.”
Mr Dwyer submitted to the court that his client’s case does not attract a sentence beyond the median range, which is defined at five to seven years in an analysis of rape sentencing carried out by the Irish Sentencing Information System (ISIS).
He said that rape cases which attracted a greater sentence than this usually involved a more severe degree of violence and previous convictions. He said there was no violence carried out other than the violence inherent in rape.
Mr Justice Hunt said that while he had no issue with how the victim was cross-examined by counsel he did have “serious issues” with Ellahi’s testimony at trial.
We have the thorn question of Mr Ellahi’s evidence. His own evidence made certain assertions about the victim which were rejected, in my view for good reason. We had a positive assertion of consent and enjoyment.
“Giving evidence that might be regarded as incorrect can be regarded fairly as an aggravating factor,” he said.
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The last thing you should do is listen to ordinary people’s opinions on complex technical topics. Look at Brexit.
Listen to what the technical experts are saying, and they are all to a man saying that Cork city needs to be extended to give it a critical mass which is important for many reasons.
@Fred Jensen: at the cost of the county though. Even the financial rebate being proposed is only for 5 years before review and doesn’t factor in lost revenue to the county council from developments they have already partially paid for.
There is also a concern the the financial model maybe unachievable in the short term for the city council
Majority of ordinary people in the county are dead set against the city council taking over. Increase in rates…no or little investment in these new areas…theyll become back waters.
@Tony Skillington: the extended City Council should have more money to spend as it wouldn’t have to subsidise the rest of the county council. The council of course might struggle
@Tony Skillington: so who is responsible for that traffic jam they call Douglas??
@Michael Collins: that’s in the county at present. So the county
@Tony Skillington: are they? Must people living in Douglas probably aren’t even aware that they are in fact living in the county. The county would have a stronger case if they hadn’t been pushing people out to far flung places to live. Cork is relatively small yet they seem to think living in Mallow and commuting would be better than living near the city.
May as well extend it to Midleton, Mallow, Macroom and Bandon seeing as ye are on such a roll lads.
So is Limerick city now bigger than Cork City ??as they have extended their boundary, and encompassed a far greater population than Cork city..
@Gary Heslin: limerick city doesn’t exist. It is now part of the county limerick. But the old boundary had a greater land area than Cork city has presently with half the population.
@prop joe: Incorrect. Limerick City still exists. It may be a unity authority with the county but it still has a border, as such. Population including suburbs 95k.
Why has Cork City got its own council ?
@sportsmad: like must urban areas it is governed locally. The counties we have presently where drawn up by the British 400 hundred years ago and don’t really make sense anymore. We should look at all county boundaries.
@prop joe: I’d like to see West Limerick and North Kerry join as one county!
@Colm O’Sullivan: I would like to see from west clare to the cork border, from north tipp to the cork border and east waterford to the cork border all come under the cork banner.
It has a bigger population than half of the counties in Ireland as it is, if the proposed expansion is approved, only 2 counties in the Republic will have a bigger population.
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