Man jailed for raping homeless woman in Limerick alley

Niamh O’Donoghue

A man has been jailed for eight years for raping a homeless woman in Limerick City five years ago.

Cristian Gogosiou (37) of Mount Kenneth Place, Limerick pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and one count of oral rape at a location in the city on September 26, 2019. He was convicted on both counts by a Central Criminal Court jury in Limerick earlier this year.

The court heard the woman, who cannot be named to protect her identity, was 31 and living in homeless accommodation at the time of the incident.

Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford handed down a 10-year sentence and suspended the last two years, backdating it to May 23rd, 2022 for time spent in custody. She also put him on the sex offenders’ register.

She said the aggravating factors were the use of a knife and said the defence that she was doing it for money was not accepted by the jury.

The judge said she could not agree with defence counsel Colman Cody SC's view that the offending was in the lower range and said the aggravating factors were the vulnerability of the accused, the degrading nature of where it took place and his failure to enter a plea.

She said the offending fell into the category of a headline sentence of 12 years but reduced this to 10 based on the mitigating factors of him being a Romanian and having to serve time in an Irish prison. She also noted that he had three children, one of whom is in Romania.

Det Sgt Enda Clifford told the court the woman was struggling with homelessness and addiction.

She said she encountered a man who was well-dressed with a beard who asked her for sexual intercourse. He said he’d give her €6,000 and jewellery.

She said she needed the toilet and went down an alley. He took a medium-sized flick knife and said he “would cut off her giblets.”

He pushed her towards the wall and attacked her. A used condom was later found on the ground. She was brought to the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit.

It took a year to identify him but gardaí finally apprehended him on September16, 2020.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.