A man who raped a woman after she had had been socialising at a nightclub with her friends has been jailed for six and a half years.
Arthur Bradford (37) was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury last month of raping the woman in Dublin on February 8, 2022. He has 21 previous convictions.
Diana Stuart SC, prosecuting, told the court the woman wished to retain her right to anonymity. However, she had no difficulty with Bradford being named in reporting of the case.
An investigating garda previously told Ms Stuart that the injured party had been out socialising with her friends. She remembered little after a certain point in the night. Notably, her last memory was dancing with a friend at a nightclub.
She woke up in a house she had never been in before. Her underwear was inside out and she felt as if she had had sex but that it was not consensual. Therefore, she left the flat and contacted a friend.
She later contacted gardai. She attended a sexual assault treatment unit and semen containing DNA matching Bradford was identified in a high vaginal swab.
Irish Mirror reports that CCTV from the nightclub showed the woman being approached by two men. She seemed unsteady on her feet, while Bradford appeared sober. The prosecution’s case was that the woman was so intoxicated that she was incapable of giving consent.
When interviewed, Bradford of Charleville Road, Rathmines, Dublin 6 said she had asked him where he was going. He invited her back to the flat. There, they had consensual sex, according to him.
In her victim impact statement, the woman said the offence had left her feeling unsafe. She said it had affected her relationships and education. She said the whole experience had been traumatising and damaging.
She said the forensic exam and the whole experience of reporting the rape was the hardest thing she had ever done. She said it had taken a long time to get to court and she continues to get help.
