‘ABSOLUTE TERROR’ | 

‘Dangerous sexual predator’ jailed for horrific kidnap and sexual assault of woman

“After the attack I couldn’t eat or sleep. I used to stay awake at night listening for fear of him returning”

Today at 17:26

A man described as a “dangerous sexual predator” has been jailed for six and a half years for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman.

Denis O’Donovan (38), a father of one, from Ballyryan, Donohill, Co Tipperary, had pleaded not guilty to five criminal offences at his trial last April.

However, a jury found him guilty of four offences, including one count of false imprisonment, two counts of sexual assault and one count of assault causing harm.

The jury failed to reach a verdict on one alleged sexual assault.

O’Donovan was sentenced to seven years in prison, with the last six months suspended.

Limerick Circuit Criminal Court heard he drove to the woman’s house, situated in an isolated rural area of Co Limerick, on the night of January 17, 2020, and knocked on the front door of her property.When the woman opened the door. there was nobody there. However, when she went to investigate the presence of a car with its engine running and its headlights on in the front yard, O’Donovan “pulled” her into the car.

At speed, he drove the woman to an isolated lay-by where he sexually assaulted her while choking her in his car.

Judge Dermot Sheehan said O’Donovan “put his arm around her (the woman’s) throat and flung her between two seats. She was terrified”.

He added: “She was crying and shouting and praying to God that he (O’Donovan) would stop. She said she thought she was going to die.”

Judge Sheehan said O’Donovan used “significant violence” during the sexual attack on the woman.“He has taken years of my life that I will never get back. He may be going to jail, but I feel like I’ve been in jail the last four years. The physical injuries from that night have healed, but the trauma will stay with me for the rest of my life.

“It has been an incredibly difficult and dark time in my life, but today I am a stronger person for surviving everything he has done to me and I refuse to let him destroy the rest of my life.”

The judge lifted reporting restrictions in respect of O’Donovan on May 17, after the woman said she wanted people to know his name and what he had done.

“He is a dangerous sexual predator and everyone should know his name,” she told the judge.

O’Donovan, who had 39 previous convictions, was on bail at the time for aggravated burglary and criminal damage in which he smashed his way into another woman’s house using an “axe”, and chased her upstairs.The judge said he was not imposing a post release supervision order.

He placed O’Donovan on a sex offenders register for an indefinite period.