Man jailed for rape of woman he met on dating app, Peter Loughran, originally from Co Monaghan, is a cold Calculated Rapist, one Brave woman, making her Statements, and getting the Rapist Thug, Jailed.

Updated / Friday, 30 Apr 2021 18:02

The victim said that ‘mentally and physically the marks are on me forever’

A man who attacked and raped a woman he met on the dating app Tinder has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years by the Central Criminal Court.

Thirty-six-year-old Peter Loughran, originally from Co Monaghan, with an address at Glasnevin Downs, Ballygall, Dublin, pleaded guilty to rape and oral rape at an address in Dublin on 5 January 2018.

In her victim impact statement, which was read by counsel on her behalf, the victim said that Loughran “not only destroyed my life” but he also “drastically changed my future”.

“The memories of that day of horror will never be erased from my mind no matter how hard I try,” she said in her statement.

The victim said that “mentally and physically the marks are on me forever”.

She said that if she is alone in her home she is afraid to open the door and if it is a man, she is afraid he will lock her in a bedroom for “another night of torture”.

She said she has scars on her vagina as a result of this and has an incurable STD. She said she is afraid she has passed the STD onto her child and will have them tested in the future.

“I just want it to be over, I never want to speak about this again,” she said.

Justice Paul McDermott said the effect of this kind of assault on a person within their own home is “very difficult” for people looking in on the facts of this case to “appreciate and understand”.

Justice McDermott said the trauma that is visited in those circumstances is “stark and deep”.

He said that “very significant and terrible damage” had been done to the victim.

He said the offences were carried out in her home by a man who was “essentially a trusted guest”, and that the assaults were carried out “in a manner that was quite degrading” and that her repeated pleas for him to stop were rejected.

Justice McDermott said that these factors, as well as a recording being made of some of what Loughran did, were aggravating factors in the case.

He said that Loughran had expressed what he was satisfied was “genuine regret and remorse”.

He noted that the accused has been assessed at a low to moderate risk of sexual reoffending and is willing to engage with any appropriate programme.

Justice McDermott sentenced Loughran to nine years’ imprisonment, but suspended the final 18 months on strict conditions including that he refrain from using any online dating app and not contact the victim or her family in any way.