A MAN was jailed this week for eight years for raping a homeless woman in Limerick City five years ago.
Cristian Gogosiou (37), of Mount Kenneth Place, Limerick City, had pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and one count of oral rape at a location in the county 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.
Detective Garda Enda Clifford told the court the woman was struggling with homelessness and addiction.
The court heard the victim encountered a man who was well-dressed, with a beard, and who asked her for sexual intercourse. He said he’d give her €6,000 and jewellery.
The woman said she needed to go to the toilet and went down an alley, at which point Gogosiou took out a medium-sized flick-knife and said he “would cut off her giblets.”
The court heard he pushed her towards the wall and penetrated her without her consent. The woman was brought to the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit. A used condom was later found on the ground.
It took a year to identify him but Gardaí apprehended Gogosiou on September 16, 2020.
In the course of the interview, he said he preyed on vulnerable women “because it was easy.”
Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford handed down a 10-year sentence and suspended the last two years, backdating it to May 23, 2022, for time spent in custody. She also placed Gogosiou on the sex offenders register.
She said the aggravating factors were the use of a knife and the defence that she was doing it for money was not accepted by the jury.
The judge said she could not agree 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 years 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.
by Niamh O’Donoghue.
