A man has been jailed for his “predatory” actions in following a woman to the isolated toilets of a bar at closing time and attempting to rape her.
Mohamed Mohamud Mohamed (26) asked the woman why she was screaming during the attack, telling her “I am saying please.”
The court heard the woman screamed so much during the 90-second attack that she lost the ability to scream or use the high-pitched register of her voice for months afterward.
“Women should not feel unsafe completing simple tasks… such as going to the toilet,” she said in her victim impact statement. “The feeling of fear never goes away.”
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Mohamed, with a former address on Townsend Street, Dublin 2, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to attempted rape and sexual assault at a Dublin city centre bar on November 12th, 2022.
Mohamed, who has been in custody since January 2023, has no known previous convictions.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott said he was satisfied that Mohamed deliberately targeted the woman and followed her to the toilet, where his intention was clearly to rape and sexually assault her.
He said she had endured a terrifying experience at the hands of a stranger who had followed her to the isolated and empty bathroom. He said the consequences for the woman had been devastating both emotionally and socially. She had lost her sense of security and safety in doing ordinary things.
“Terror accompanies her in ordinary everyday life,” he noted. He said she had shown a high degree of courage and considerable strength of character.
The judge commended the gardaí for their clever investigative work in tracking down Mohamed from till receipts. He said little was known about Mohamed, and what was known was unverifiable.
He set a headline sentence of seven years for the attempted rape and four years for the sexual assault. He took into account the mitigating factors including his guilty plea and work history.
Mr Justice McDermot noted that Mohamed seemed to be an isolated person and that he would be serving his sentence as a foreign national in an Irish prison.
He imposed concurrent sentences totalling five years and six months.
The judge said, given the predatory nature of Mohamed’s actions, he would impose four years post-release supervision to ensure his offending was addressed and to protect the public.
An investigating garda told Cathleen Noctor SC, prosecuting, that the young woman asked to use the toilets in the bar at closing time and was told where they were.
She went into a cubicle and found the door could not be locked, so she put her phone down on the toilet roll holder and attempted to hold the door closed with her feet. She became aware someone was trying to get in and thinking it was another female, told the person it was occupied.
She then realised it was a man and demanded to know what he was doing. Mohamed entered the cubicle and closed the door behind him, as the woman attempted to pull up her pants. He put his pint glass down on top of her phone.
Mohamed grabbed her by the wrist and appeared to be masturbating. He then attempted to rape her.
He asked her why she was screaming, telling her “I am saying please.” He also told her “Please, please, I need this.”
The woman continued to try to push him away and contemplated smashing the glass at him but feared she might be seen to be in the wrong if he was bleeding.
He blocked the door with his shoulder as she tried to get out, but she managed to get her phone. He inserted his fingers into her.
The woman finally managed to push him away and pull up her trousers. She ran from the toilet and alerted security but the offender had escaped.
Gardaí were alerted and tracked the attacker’s movements via CCTV. Gardaí were able to see him pay for drinks and used information from his mode of payment on the till receipts to track his banking details and ultimately his address.
The woman was taken to a sexual assault treatment unit on the night of the attack, and semen was found on her trousers. A DNA match was found between the semen and a sample taken from Mohamed.
Mohamed was interviewed by gardaí and said there had been consensual touching and his semen was present because he masturbated in front of her.
The court heard Mohamed claimed to be from Somalia, which he had fled in 2017. He was in direct provision in Italy before being refused asylum in Germany, Italy and France. He travelled to the Netherlands, where he got a false Swedish passport, which he destroyed while travelling to Ireland.
He applied for asylum in Ireland on his arrival in February 2022 and was placed in hotel accommodation in Dublin, where he lived until his arrest. His asylum application has not been decided.
In her victim impact statement, the woman outlined how the offence has impacted her life.
She said she had attempted suicide, thinking she could not live without nightmares or fear. Her mental health was affected but she did not get help for a year as she refused to think about it.
She described how she had to turn down a job offer as she was unable to focus or work with a team full of men. She said the fear of something similar happening was unbearable.
She said she had been unable to feel happiness and spent a really long time at her lowest.
John Peart SC, defending, said his client had said he had not been used to drinking so much and this was an explanation, not an excuse. He said he has been instructed to indicate his client’s apology and remorse for his actions.
He asked the court to take Mohamed’s guilty plea at the first opportunity into account and give him the benefit of it being a first offence.
Mr Peart said Mohamed would be serving his sentence as a foreign national in an Irish prison and asked the court to be as lenient as possible.
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