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) on Friday, 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.”
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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 Finian’s Green, Lucan, Co. Dublin pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to aggravated sexual assault of the woman on November 16th, 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”.
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 joy, 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 9.30 pm 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 the fuck 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.
Fiona Murphy SC, defending, said her client expressed “genuine remorse, shame and disgust for his appalling and criminal actions on the night”.
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.
The woman took to the stand to deliver her victim impact statement.
She 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.
She said she left her laptop in work that evening unaware that it would be six months before she would return.
The woman spoke of how “despite making sensible choices” that night in terms of the route she walked she still did not manage to keep herself safe.
She said she regrets that she called her mother as he was walking past as “she had to hear my terrifying screams” and said that her parents arrived at the scene minutes later.
She spoke of the dedication and hard work of the investigating gardaí who tracked Doolan down but also of how traumatic and hugely distressing her examination at the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit was.
“I was unable to sit still, my whole body shaking with fear. I had only gone out for a walk three hours before and this was the result,” the woman said before she recounted how photographs had to be taken of “my already violated body”.
She spoke of the difficulty in making the call to work the following day to explain her absence.
“Initially, I intended to tell everyone myself, but it triggered symptoms of post-traumatic stress,” the woman said before she said she later “felt nothing” and was “disconnected”.
The woman spoke of how survival became her “primary focus” and it remains the same today.
She said the first time she heard Doolan’s name was in July last year and described how the time leading up to him entering his plea of guilty was “the hardest time of my life”.
She met Doolan once on the street, instantly recognised him, and, in shock, nearly walked into oncoming traffic.
“My life before the crime has gone forever. I am still grieving for that life. My sense of safety has not returned and I am not sure it ever will. There is no room for spontaneity anymore. I don’t take any chances. Walking was a significant part of my mental health, it took me months before I started walking again. I rarely go out alone after dark anymore,” the woman continued.
She spoke of how now she is terrified of the dark, needs to sleep with a light on, and can’t even walk into a room in her home without turning the light on first.
She said travel is now an ordeal and it was something she used to love to do.
She thanked the gardaí for their kindness and professionalism and the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre for their assistance.
She expressed her gratitude to her family and friends for “their unwavering love and support”.
“I have suffered and will continue to suffer. I have had a life sentence imposed on me, fundamentally altering me as a person that is irreversible,” the woman said.
“I am determined to now use my strength and resilience to heal and create a future,” she said in concluding her victim impact statement.
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