Man convicted of rape during Cork rag week described as a 'predator' 

A 22-year-old woman was raped by a ‘predator’ in her bedroom as she slept heavily after being out drinking with friends and she believes that the rapist used her phone to make a friend request that looked like she had contacted him after being raped.

24-year-old Kamal Kumar Nepali of Beech Park, Ballincollig, County Cork, was found guilty of trespassing at her home with intent to rape her and on charges of raping, sexually assaulting and physically assaulting her causing harm. The accused is from Nepal and proceedings at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork were translated for him by a Hindi interpreter.

The jury of six men and five women – one juror was excused during the ten-day trial – were unanimous in finding him guilty also of trespassing with intent to commit an offence at four other houses before he eventually got into the home of the injured party in the early hours of the morning. The crimes were committed during student Rag Week celebrations on March 1, 2022.

The prosecution described him as a predator looking to rape someone in their home on that night.

The injured party was 22 at the time and is now 24. She wanted the accused to be identified in coverage of the case. Prosecution senior counsel Ray Boland said this would not identify the victim as there was absolutely no connection between the parties.

Mr Justice Michael McGrath remanded Kamal Kumar Nepali in continuing custody for sentencing at the Central Criminal Court on January 22, 2024.

The accused had no visible reaction to the guilty verdicts. The young woman who was raped by him wept as the unanimous verdicts were delivered at the court sitting in Cork. She was embraced first by family and then by gardaí who investigated the case.

The woman testified that she woke up to find the stranger in her bed, her chest and neck marked with love bites or ‘hickeys’ and the physical feeling that she had sexual intercourse.

She believes that the explanation for a friend request from her phone was that the accused must have held the phone in front of her face – to open it by facial recognition – and used it to make the friend request. She said she certainly did not make the request.

Prosecution

Prosecution senior counsel Ray Boland said the complainant’s account of what happened never changed, unlike the defendant’s account which kept changing. Mr Boland said the accused told a friend he walked up the stairs of the house with the complainant and that they had sex, but that this was not what he went on to tell gardaí. He said he was looking for a place to stay and that the door of this house was open and that the complainant effectively invited him into her bed when she saw him at the door of her room.

“I am suggesting that what in fact happened is that he took advantage of her drunken slumber, she being unfortunate enough to have the attribute that she sleeps very heavily after drink, that she could sleep through full sexual intercourse and love bites and other bruises.

“She wakes around 7am and has the horror of discovering a stranger in her bed with his arm across her. 

"They have this bizarre conversation and there is the slow realisation that something sexual happened – she has all these ‘hickeys’ on her neck and chest.

“Never in a million years would she see a stranger in her house, beckon him to her bed and have sex with him… He said there was no talking, it was just spontaneous that she is some sort of insatiable female who has to have this man… And he has some inflated view of himself as an irresistible lover beckoned to have sex – It is more than unlikely, it is lies.

“I am suggesting to you he was a sexual predator looking for a drunk girl. It was rag week. Every second house was a student house. He knows this but what business does he have up around UCC? Rape was his purpose in going to those houses or at least sexual assault.” 

Garda interview

The accused man did not give evidence and his senior counsel John Peart said the defence would rely on evidence of what the defendant said to gardaí at interview.

Detective Garda John Paul Twomey interviewed the accused who said, “I went to town. I had a few pints… I got out of my car and was looking for a bed. (Complainant’s) house was open. I went upstairs. (Christian name of complainant) woke up. She started kissing me. We started to have sex. She asked me to have sex.

“I asked could I add her on Instagram. I went home and went to sleep. I did not force any girls. I did not rape her. It was a mutual thing. Other than that I did not do anything.” Asked to expand on this summary he said he first went into another room in the house and a young woman in bed laughed and told him he was in the wrong house.

Regarding the complainant’s room he said, “She saw me and said, ‘hello’. I said, ‘hello’. She said, ‘come here’. I sat beside her… She kissed me, she pulled me to her. I kissed her too. She grabbed me by the hand. I turned off the light before sex… She opened my pants. She opened her pants. Then we had sex.” 

Mr Peart senior counsel said to the jury of seven men and five women, “A lot of the facts are shrouded in a mist of drink and bad memory. I will be suggesting to you that it is nigh impossible to come to a decision beyond reasonable doubt. You might have a suspicion or an intuition but these are the dark angels on the ceiling of the jury room.

“Where an accused mistakenly believed that the woman was consenting, where he believed that genuinely – even though she did not consent – he must be found not guilty.

“Strange things happen in life. There would not be the word bizarre if strange things did not happen in life. He said he wandered to the room and was welcomed to the room and this had a continuous follow-on.” “I am saying to you – do not make a decision because of peer pressure, because you believe other people would not think the world of you. Just consider, has the state proved its case? Don’t be pressurised by public opinion… don’t be pushed around by political correctness. Sometimes people make a decision that is totally, politically incorrect because it is the right thing to do.”

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