Overview
- The Central Criminal Court imposed a seven-year sentence with the final year suspended for three years under Probation Service supervision, backdated to time already served and resulting in an effective six-year custodial term.
- The 43-year-old pleaded guilty during the trial as his wife gave evidence by video link after initially telling gardai the act was consensual and later suggesting she caused the injury herself.
- A forensic examination at a Sexual Assault Treatment Unit found a laceration to the woman's anal area consistent with the allegation, and she declined to make a victim impact statement.
- Mr Justice Paul Burns described the attack as a drunken assault in which the husband exploited his wife's consent to sex after she expressly refused anal sex.
- Gardai arrested the man at Dublin Airport on December 20, 2024 after receiving information he planned to leave the country, and he has remained in custody since; the court noted his lack of prior convictions, work history and remorse but rejected mitigation based on prior sexual activity.