A JUDGE HAS jailed a rapist for 15 years after saying he needs to be removed from society until it’s safe for him to return.
Richard O’Brien (57) lured a grandmother to a caravan in Dublin before raping her, assaulting her and biting her during a sustained and vicious attack on 19 March 2011.
He then fled to the UK before being extradited in 2013. Last July he was found guilty by a jury of rape, attempted rape, false imprisonment and assault causing harm earlier this year.
O’Brien with a former address in Arlington Lodge, Church Street, Tralee was sentenced in early 2015 after being convicted of separate offences of rape and false imprisonment carried out two months earlier. He received a six year sentence for that, backdated to the date of his extradition from the UK.
At his sentencing hearing last month, Justice Tony Hunt had him removed from court after O’Brien repeatedly interrupted proceedings, calling his victim a “filthy prostitute”.
Today, Justice Hunt said that the harm done by O’Brien to the victim was “very very great indeed” with “long term if not permanent damage”.
He said that O’Brien had identified her on the night as someone who was a vulnerable person. He had used deception by telling her there was a party while in reality he was bringing her to an isolated caravan.
He said he was tempted to impose a life sentence so that O’Brien would be kept away from the public until the executive determines it would be safe for him to be released.
He said O’Brien was “a very serious threat indeed” but said his case fell just short of one where a life sentence should be imposed.
Imposing a 15 year prison term, Justice Hunt said O’Brien will be in jail for a large part of his remaining life span.
“That’s his fault. He needs to be removed from society until it’s safe for him to return,” he said. He said he was giving some allowance in his sentencing to O’Brien’s age and his medical issues.
He backdated the sentence to last August, when his previous sentence expired. He ordered that O’Brien be subject to post release supervision for three years and that he must notify authorities of his address, as per the Sex Offenders Act 2001.
In a victim impact statement read out in court, the woman said she has had nightmares every night for the last five years. She said the attack led to the breakdown of her 23-year relationship and she had suicidal thoughts. She said her relationship with her children and grandchildren has suffered as a result.
“For the last five years of my life I have been existing, not living,” she said.
O’Brien left school at the age of 15 and worked in the UK as a labourer and truck driver.
His defence barrister Damien Colgan said he suffers from arthritis and sciatica and has recently been diagnosed with testicular cancer.
He has been married twice and has seven children, but is estranged from his family.
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