A man who raped and assaulted his wife as their marriage was breaking down is to appeal his conviction.

The 42-year-old was jailed for ten years in July after being convicted by a jury in the Central Criminal Court. He was only the third person to be convicted for marital rape since rape within a marriage was made illegal in 1990.

The trial heard the woman had to stay in contact with her husband after the rape so he could have court-ordered access to their child.

In June, a jury of eleven men and one woman convicted him of raping his wife in ….read more

A man who claims he was acting in his sleep when he allegedly raped his friend will go on trial for a third time in 2018.

The 29-year-old man conceded he might have had sex with the woman, but claimed he was suffering from sexsomnia at the time, a rare condition that causes people to carry out sexual acts while asleep.

Earlier this month, a jury said it was unable to agree on a verdict following over eight hours deliberations and a month-long trial. An earlier trial collapsed in 2015 due to legal issues just before a jury was to begin deliberations.

The ….read more

A man has been acquitted of raping a woman while she was incapacitated from mistakenly taking the drug ketamine.

The accused was also found not guilty of hitting the woman on the face with his penis in a room of people at a party.

The accused, who works as a bar manager, told gardaí he had consensual sex with the woman and denied hitting her with his penis.

The woman told the jury that after snorting a line of ketamine, thinking it was cocaine, she was paralysed and was unable to see or talk.

Today the jury at the Central Criminal Court returned and ….read more

A jury has begun deliberating in the trial of a man accused of raping a woman while she was incapacitated from mistakenly taking the drug ketamine.

The Central Criminal Court trial has heard allegations that the accused hit the woman on the face with his penis in a room of people at a party before raping her as she lay in his bed.

The woman told the jury that after snorting a line of ketamine, thinking it was cocaine, she was paralysed and was unable to see or talk. She said she knew ketamine was being passed around along with cocaine and ….read more

A Waterford man has been jailed for 13 years for sexually abusing his nephew in the 1980s and raping the victim’s sister a decade later.

The victims were aged four to five when their uncle began abusing them.

The abuse came to light after the youngest victim went to gardaí in 2012. Shortly afterwards her brother also made a complaint.

The brother explained in a victim impact statement that he wanted to come forward sooner “but the words would just not come out.” He said the abuse stayed secret “until my little sister said the dreaded words.”

“I will have to ask myself for ….read more