*The matter came before Ennis Circuit Court this week.
A JUDGE has tripled the prison time to three months on an intruder who bit the right buttocks of a married woman during the course of a late-night assault at her family home.
At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Francis Comerford imposed three concurrent three month prison terms on Martin Gooney (28) of Riverview, Scariff, Co Clare for two assaults on the woman and trespass at her home in East Clare on December 22nd 2022.
Judge Comerford said that there was “a sexual element” to the assaults and as a result, the complainant was entitled to anonymity in the case.
Judge Comerford said that these are ‘serious Section two assaults and there was a serious trespass”.
Judge Comerford said that the headline prison sentence for the offences would be five months and reduced the concurrent prison terms to three months based on Mr Gooney’s guilty pleas.
Mr Gooney had pleaded guilty to two counts of assault against the woman and one count of trespass at her family home.
In the District Court last September, Mr Gooney received a concurrent one month prison term for the offences.
Solicitor for Mr Gooney, Daragh Hassett told Judge Comerford that Mr Gooney wishes to drop his Circuit Court appeal but Mr Gooney did want a deferral in entering prison as he has issues to attend to.
However, Judge Comerford refused the application for the severity appeal to be withdrawn and also refused the application to defer activation of the prison term.
Judge Comerford said that “once Mr Gooney starts the appeal process he doesn’t have an automatic right to stop it”.
Outlining the December 22nd 2022 incident, State Solicitor for Clare, Aisling Casey told Judge Comerford that the assault incident at the woman’s home only ended after the woman screamed and this resulted in her seven year old son coming downstairs and Mr Gooney then leaving the house.
Ms Casey said that earlier Mr Gooney had tried to kiss the woman at her property where he was trespassing.
Ms Casey said that the woman fell “and Mr Gooney bit her on the right buttocks cheek. She got back up and on entering the house he followed her and bit her on the right shoulder and pushed her against the dish-washer”.
Ms Casey said that during the course of a Garda interview, Mr Gooney had claimed that he had been in a brief romantic relationship with her the year before
Ms Casey said that in a statement to Gardaí, the woman said that at no time was she ever in a relationship with the man “and there is no evidence at all to suggest that they had any relationship”.
Mr Hassett said that Mr Gooney is a father of young children and a digger driver.
The complainant was present in court for today’s appeal hearing and Ms Casey stated that with the appeal to the Circuit Court “there has been a re-traumatisation of the victim in this case”.
In response, Mr Hassett said, “There is no wish to re-traumatise anyone. My client pleaded guilty in the district court in September and he has taken responsibility for his actions and there has been no change to that”.
