A man who posed as a taxi driver and who was jailed for 17-and-a-half years for “chilling copycat” sex assaults, including raping two different women three years apart has failed in his sentence appeal.
Ioan Lingurar (36) raped the first victim after she woke up in his car in February 2016 at a location in Dublin. The woman tried to get out, but the car was locked and she only managed to escape some time after the attack.
In December 2021, the Central Criminal Court heard that three years later, Lingurar sexually assaulted another woman in a car after she hailed what she believed was a taxi late at night in Dublin. The woman managed to escape after grabbing the wheel and punching him.
The court heard that Romanian national Lingurar was arrested after DNA swabs taken after both attacks were matched to a DNA profile in Austria that identified him.
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Following a trial in October 2021, Lingurar was convicted by a jury of rape and false imprisonment of a woman at or near Old Bawn Road, Tallaght, Dublin, on February 14th, 2016. He had pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Lingurar, with an address at Clarinda Park East, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to the sexual assault and false imprisonment of the second woman at locations within County Dublin on February 24th, 2019.
In both cases, the women had become separated from their groups when socialising in Dublin city centre and were walking alone. CCTV showed Lingurar following them as they walked before approaching them.
Both women experienced unexplained blackouts for several hours on the night they were attacked.
When sentencing Lingurar, Ms Justice Tara Burns said these were “chilling and unsettling cases” in which “copycat offences” were committed against two women of similar age and appearance when alone.
Justice Burns said the fact that neither victim can remember several hours of the nights was “particularly troubling”.
The judge said the incidents were aggravated by their serious nature, the circumstances of both victims being locked in a car with their phones taken from them and the length of time they were both falsely imprisoned.
The judge said the offences were further aggravated by the women being “preyed on” when they were by themselves late at night and by Lingurar having a previous conviction for a sexual assault in France in 2011.
She sentenced Lingurar to 10 years for the rape of the first woman in 2016 and to five years for her false imprisonment.
Ms Justice Burns jailed Lingurar for seven-and-a-half years for the 2019 false imprisonment and for six-and-a-half years for the sexual assault.
The two 2016 sentences were to run concurrently to each other, which amounted to 10 years, as were the two 2019 sentences that amounted to seven-and-a-half years. However, the judge ordered that the 2016 and 2019 jail-terms were to run consecutively to each other, giving a total sentence of seventeen-and-a-half years.
At the Court of Appeal on Thursday Seamus Clarke SC, for Lingurar, argued that the headline sentences before mitigation was taken into account had been too high.
Mr Clarke said the sentencing judge had identified 13 years as a headline sentence for the rape charge and eight years for the false imprisonment in that incident.
The barrister said Ms Justice Burns identified nine years as a headline sentence for both the sexual assault and the false imprisonment of the second woman.
Mr Clarke said that a three-month deduction for an acknowledged “late, late” guilty plea to the 2019 false imprisonment charge was also too low.
Mr Justice George Birmingham said that the 2019 sexual assault charge was initially a rape charge but there had been “uncertainties around proving penetration” but that it had been “on the cusp of rape”.
Mr Clarke said the rape charge had been put in the 10-15-year higher category which would include aggravating factors such as degradation, violence, abuse of trust, force or coercion. He said the case concerning his client was “more about guile and deceit”.
Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly said both women were vulnerable, alone and that both assaults were “entirely premeditated, no matter what way you look at it”.
Mr Clarke said all cases of inveiglement involved “some premeditation” and that there was “room at least for the headline to be lower than 13 years”.
The barrister said the discount for the guilty plea for the 2016 false imprisonment amounted to “less than three per cent of the overall headline sentence”.
He said his client came to Ireland from Romania in 2016, was homeless for a period and sold the Big Issue and had family here.
Garnet Orange SC, for the State, said that if the court considered each offence separately, the sentencing judge was “entirely within the range having regard to the circumstances”.
He said that if their premeditated nature was then taken into account “we step back even further”.
“There was the planning and targeting of young women separated from their company travelling through the inner city late at night but it also shows his methodology,” said Mr Orange.
The barrister said the 2019 offences had been “in gestation for three years” and were “calling out for heavy sentences”.
Outlining the background of the cases, Mr Justice Birmingham said Lingurar’s first victim was on a short visit to Ireland and that around 2am on the night she was separated from her friends when in Temple Bar and hailed what she thought was a taxi.
The judge said the next thing the woman remembered was waking up without her underwear with the accused sitting beside her with his pants down.
She shouted and scratched his face but he climbed on top of her and raped her.
She eventually escaped the car and hailed a taxi that brought her to Tallaght Garda station at about 7am.
A DNA profile taken from swabs was later recorded as being that of an “unidentified male”.
Mr Justice Birmingham said CCTV showed the second woman walking “briskly and confidently” through the Temple Bar and Christ Church areas before getting into what she thought was a taxi.
The judge said the woman became anxious when the driver did not take the correct turn and noticed the locks were down on the doors.
The driver then got on top of her and sexually assaulted her but she fought back and escaped.
A DNA profile also recorded an unidentified male as the attacker. However, it matched the profile taken from the incident three years earlier. Both DNA profiles later matched one taken from Lingurar in Austria.
The judge said the aggravating factors were of a serious nature, “involving violations, the circumstances of being locked into a car, their phones taken from them, the length of time that both were detained and that they were preyed on when by themselves late at night in Dublin city centre”.
Mr Justice Birmingham said the two women gave “extraordinarily powerful victim impact statements”.
Mr Justice Birmingham said it was a “clear case for consecutive sentences” for offences of the “utmost seriousness” and that the court could not conclude the headline sentences were in error.
“No error has been established,” said the judge who added that while “significant and severe” sentences were imposed, the offences “had to be met”.
Mr Justice Birmingham said the court “is satisfied that while severe, they fell inside the margin of appreciation” open to the trial judge.
“We must dismiss the appeal because no error occurred,” said Mr Justice Birmingham.