Bouncer gets seven years for sex assault

Anne Lucey

December 17 2009 04:44 AM

A judge who sentenced a bouncer to seven years in jail for sexually assaulting a young woman strongly criticised a character witness statement by a parish priest who said the man had "always had the height of respect for women".

Fr Sean Sheehy, parish priest of Castlegregory, Co Kerry, told the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee he had known Danny Foley (35) since he was a teenager and said there was "not an abusive bone in his body".

However, Judge Donagh McDonagh said Foley's actions on the night of the sex assault "gave the lie" to Fr Sheehy's character statement.

The courtroom also witnessed extraordinary scenes as 50 people, mostly middle-aged and elderly men, queued past the press box to shake the hand of the convicted man and hug him after he was brought from the cell to the dock.

The bouncer was handed the seven-year sentence for the sexual assault of a woman whom gardai on patrol found semi-conscious alongside a skip in the town centre car park in Listowel in the early hours of June 15, 2008, with the man "crouching over her".

She was naked from the waist down, and her jeans and underwear had been removed. The woman had extensive bruises and scratching throughout her body, the trial of Foley heard earlier this month. There was no clinical evidence of sexual assault.

Foley, of Meen, Listowel, had denied the charge. He told gardai he had "found your wan" after he had gone to relieve himself near the skip at 3.50am.

However, CCTV footage showed him carrying the woman to the skip area. It also emerged he had met her earlier in a nightclub and she had become ill and quickly incapacitated after he bought her a black Russian drink. He had insisted on walking her home, against her wishes.

The victim's recollection was hazy and she blacked out but she remembered trying to prevent him from removing her clothing.

Two weeks ago, a jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict.

Judge McDonagh described the woman's victim impact statement as one of "remarkable dignity".

'Revolting'

He said the convicted man's "revolting " assertions and the "odious" language he used to describe his victim and his allegations about mutual sexual acts on the night, were designed "to add insult to injury" and "to demean and denigrate her further in the eyes of the jury and the public".

In her impact statement, the victim spoke of being "judged" in north Kerry for pursing her case. "Even though my name has never been mentioned in the press, Listowel is not a big town and everyone knows it's me. I feel as if people are judging me the whole time.

"I've been asked by people I know if I am sorry for bringing Dan Foley to court. I am not sorry for it. All I did was tell the truth," she said in a frail voice.

She had become suicidal after the incident but was now attending counselling.

Yesterday handing down sentence Judge McDonagh said Foley had told lie after lie and sentenced him to seven years, suspending the final two and ordering he be placed on the sex offenders' register for life.