A COLLEGE STUDENT who raped a woman in a laneway while walking her home from the pub has been jailed for five years.

Michael Molloy (25) of Creagh Demesne, Gorey, Co. Wexford, raped and sexually assaulted the then 20-year-old woman while walking her home in the early hours of 1 November 2021. He was aged 22 at the time.

Molloy was found guilty by unanimous jury verdicts of one count of rape, one count of oral rape and one count of sexual assault of the woman following a Central Criminal Court trial in Waterford in February.

The woman waived her anonymity to allow Molloy to be named, the court heard.

Molloy, who appeared emotional in the dock during the sentence hearing, maintains his innocence and does not accept the verdicts of the jury, the court heard.

He told gardaí he kissed and digitally penetrated the woman and that it was consensual. He has no previous convictions and has been in custody since his conviction.

Detective Garda Jacinta Gordon told the court that on the night in question, the young woman and her friends were driven to the pub by her father.

They left the bar around 11:30pm and went for food before the woman decided to walk home.

Along the way, she met Molloy, whom she knew from when they were in school together but had never spoken to before.

Instead of walking towards his house, Molloy walked the woman towards her home and they started kissing in a lane.

The woman kissed him back before telling him she didn’t want to continue as she knew he had a girlfriend. Molloy then turned her around and forced her against a wall, digitally penetrating and raping her.

The woman repeatedly said no but Molloy told her to “just let it happen”. When the woman resisted and fell to the ground, he orally raped her.

She managed to push him off and ran home crying, with Molloy shouting after her not to tell anyone. She phoned a friend and then told her parents what had happened.

The woman was treated in a sexual assault treatment unit within a couple of hours, where lacerations, soreness and some bleeding was noted.

Molloy was arrested and denied the charges.

During the trial, defence counsel put it to the woman that she had initiated the sexual activity between them and it was all consensual, which she vehemently denied.

Sentencing him today, Justice Paul Burns said Molloy took advantage of the fact the young woman “may have shown some interest in him”.

“That didn’t give him permission to engage in sexual activity without her consent,” he said, adding it was a “terrible experience” for the woman that has lasting psychological effects.

“What led a young man of previous good character with good prospects to do what he did remains unexplained,” the judge said, noting there is no psychological report before the court.

He noted the DPP had placed the offending in the category of seven to 10 years’ imprisonment and he set a headline sentence of seven years.

He reduced it to six years, taking mitigation into account and suspended the final year of that sentence on a number of conditions, including that Molloy remain under the supervision of the Probation Service for three years.

In her victim impact statement which was read out by Det Gda Gordon, the woman said she has “gone from being a young woman who felt she had everything going for her, full of confidence and drive, to a completely lost soul”.

She said she feels violated and unsafe in her day-to-day life, with anxiety and recurring nightmares.

She said she is constantly reminded of the worst night of her life when she sees his relatives and has to be careful she doesn’t run into him in the local shops.

She said she now distrusts people and has struggled to continue to live her life as normal, but that she can proudly say she is now coming out on the other side.

Colman Cody SC, defending, handed in a book of testimonials on behalf of Molloy, who he said had a number of achievements across the areas of education, sport and work.

At the time of this offence, he was studying architecture and design at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) with the aim of joining his father in the family business, but was unable to continue due to the case against him, the court heard.

Defence counsel said Molloy has a stable home environment to return to after his sentence has been served.

He has been in a relationship with his current girlfriend for a year, the court heard.