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Violent rapist who broke victim’s eye socket walks free from prison after seven years

Sicko who also broke cheekbone in attack had been barred from housing estate

Today at 07:00

A VIOLENT rapist has walked free from prison after serving just seven years for a devastating sex attack on a woman in her own home.

Christopher Mulready (38) was sentenced in 2018 for the horrific attack in which he broke the victim’s eye socket, strangled her and left her unable to walk.

Prior to the attack, Mulready was known to gardai as a dangerous and erratic criminal and had once been banned from a Limerick housing estate because of his violent behaviour.

He was driven away from the gates of the Midlands Prison this week after serving his time.

Mulready’s freedom came later than his original release date after he lost part of his remission for a prison assault, according to Sunday World sources.

He previously ended up in court when he failed to engage with probation officers after another conviction for which he got a suspended sentence.

His latest sentence came after Mulready was convicted of breaking into the home of a woman as she slept on the sofa in April 2016 before launching an attack that lasted into the next day.

The victim awoke to Mulready punching her in the face and body. He also attacked her with a broom handle. The assault left the woman with a fractured eye socket and cheekbone.

The next morning Mulready raped the victim, the Central Criminal Court was told during his 2018 trial.

It was also heard the woman now suffers from flashbacks of the assaults.

During the horror attack, Mulready dragged the victim off the couch by her hair and into the bedroom where he continued to punch her.

He also began strangling her and told her he was going to break her windpipe, and that she deserved this for having him arrested by gardai.

Mr Justice Michael Moriarty said the attack was cowardly and despicable and that photographs of the victim’s bruising around the neck, arms and legs made for horrific viewing.

He said Mulready had shown no remorse and seemed to smirk his way through the trial. The judge also ordered that the vicious thug never make contact with the woman and be listed as a sex offender for life.

Mr Justice Moriarty commended the courage of the victim in giving her evidence during the trial and also praised the professionalism of the investigating gardai.

Even before this case, Mulready was well known to gardai for a series of sinister crimes.

In 2009, he was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to committing an aggravated burglary, during which three elderly people were held at gunpoint in their Co Limerick home.

In 2012, he became the first person to be banned from a housing estate in Caherconlish, Co Limerick for violent behaviour.

In the first case of its kind in east Limerick, the County Council secured a court order to bar him from a housing estate.

The local authority sought the exclusion order against the then 27-year-old Mulready, which can be given for anti-social behaviour and intimidation.

Kilmallock court heard that Mulready had returned to the estate shortly after being released from prison and was involved in “anti-social behaviour”.

A housing official gave evidence that one tenant felt so fearful after a particular incident they gave the house back to the county council.

The official told the court: “It was quite peaceful up to a number of months ago when the respondent was released from prison. He is responsible for intimidation and harassment.

Mulready was directed by Judge Mary Larkin not to enter Oakley Lawn, Caherconlish for three years.

Separately, Mulready appeared before Limerick Circuit Court the same week in 2012, where a probation officer sought to have a suspended prison sentence activated.

He received a five-year prison sentence in February 2009 with the final two years suspended for his role in the aggravated burglary in Effin, Co Limerick.

Mulready had failed to attend 11 appointments since his release in August 2011 and he was not co-operating with the Probation Service.

Mulready told the court his head “was all over the place” at the time.