A young man who “bundled” a woman off the public pathway into bushes while she was out walking in her neighbourhood one evening has been jailed for aggravated sexual assault.
Sentencing Joshua Doolan, 19, Mr Justice Tony Hunt described this as a “very disturbing crime” which has had “profound and protracted effects” on the victim.
He had previously commented that the 43-year-old woman had been “bundled off the public pathway into bushes” while she was out walking, adding, “but for the ferocity of the struggle, who knows where we would be.”
Mr Justice Hunt said that it was “particularly disturbing” that the victim was “going about her business at a time and in place that was familiar to her where she had a right to feel secure and not engage in hypervigilant activity”.
He expressed the view that cases of this kind suggest there is “no place where a female can necessarily feel safe”.
He continued that “one can think of other cases that demonstrate this with worse consequences” before noting the “appalling damage” caused to the victim.
Doolan, of St Finians Green, Lucan, Co, Dublin, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to aggravated sexual assault of the woman on 16 November 2022.
The judge noted Doolan was a “young man” who was facing custody for the first time.
However, he said Doolan had “wrecked his own life” by his actions and will have to deal with the consequences even after his release from custody as the “stench of this will linger over him for the rest of his life”.
He noted the mitigating features including Doolan’s plea, his age, personal and medical circumstances and willingness to engage with relevant services.
The judge said the offence was “intentionally committed” but not in the sense of involving a “long period of premeditation”.
He noted that Doolan and the victim were “complete strangers”, which he described as an aggravating factor.
Mr Justice Hunt handed Doolan a sentence of seven years with the final 18 months suspended on strict conditions.
He directed Doolan to have no direct or indirect contact with the victim and placed him under the supervision of the Probation Services for three years post-release.
In her victim impact statement, the woman said the attack “irreversibly altered the course of my life” and spoke of how she is terrified to be in a courtroom in such close proximity to her perpetrator.
“My sense of safety, freedom, my job, my happiness are all gone now… all because of one person’s desire for power, control and for sex.”
Mr Justice Hunt noted the victim’s “impressive and eloquent” testimony and “commended her evidence to anyone who wants to gain insight into how offending of this kind affects the injured party”.
At an earlier hearing, a local detective told Shane Costelloe SC, prosecuting, that the woman and Doolan were complete strangers.
She was out walking in a Dublin suburb at 9.30pm one November evening and had specifically stuck to the main road because of the darkness of the evening.
During the walk, she noticed Doolan walking behind her and felt uncomfortable.
She had been speaking to her mother on the phone and she called her back for some reassurance.
Doolan then walked up beside her, and she believed he was going to pass her, but instead, he grabbed her and pushed her toward some bushes and onto the ground.
The woman immediately began to scream very loudly but Doolan put his fingers in her mouth and told her to shut up.
He was fully on top of her and kept trying to hold on the ground while trying to pull her leggings down. He then sexually assaulted her.
The detective told Mr Costelloe that the woman later told gardaí at this point she said to herself that she was “not going to let this happen” and she put up a struggle. Doolan was unable to restrain her because of the force of her resistance.
She continued to kick out and managed to get him off her while continually shouting, “No, No, No”.
She managed to get Doolan off her completely and get to her knees. He then ran off.
The detective said Doolan lost his glasses during the struggle and the woman immediately retrieved them. She also had a detailed description of his appearance, including his height, hair style and the clothing he was wearing.
A member of the public had been driving by and noticed Doolan walking suspiciously as if he was trying to conceal his face. He then noticed the woman and came to her assistance. The incident was immediately reported to the gardaí.
The detective said door-to-door enquiries were conducted, and gardaí retrieved CCTV footage from a Dublin Bus that had been in the area at the time after other cameras picked up a person, matching the woman’s description, getting off a bus in the minutes before the attack.
Doolan’s glasses also led to his identification, and gardaí discovered that they had a particular prescription attached to them, and they managed to track down the optician who had prescribed them.
Doolan was arrested and interviewed but nothing of “evidential value” came out of the interviews. His home was searched, and the clothing he had been wearing on the night was retrieved, including a distinctive leather jacket.
Fiona Murphy SC, defending, said her client expressed “genuine remorse, shame and disgust for his appalling and criminal actions on the night”.
She accepted it was a serious offence and asked the court to take into account her client’s guilty plea as a mitigating factor as it prevented the woman having to give evidence at trial.
Ms Murphy said Doolan was diagnosed as having Asperger’s syndrome when he was 11 years old and said that has had “an impact on how he fits in this world”.
Counsel handed in a number of reports to the court, including letters from his parents and aunt.
She said Doolan has been engaging in counselling since his arrest in an effort to deal with why he committed the offence.
Ms Murphy said Doolan has engaged in “an honest and open way” with probation officers in order to carry out a risk assessment and has demonstrated an understanding of the hurt he has caused the victim.
