A man who repeatedly raped a woman he met on a dating website after giving a false name has been jailed for nine years.
Bajo Ziflai (22) was found guilty by a jury of four counts of raping the 23-year-old woman and one count of sexually assaulting her at an address in Co Galway following a Central Criminal Court trial in July last year. He was 20 years old at the time of the attack.
Sentencing him on Monday, Ms Justice Eileen Creedon noted Ziflai has shown no remorse or acknowledged the harm he caused to the woman on the night in question. He does not accept the verdicts of the jury and continues to maintain the woman made up the allegations because she was “attention seeking”.
Ziflai, with an address at Lacken Valley, New Ross, Co Wexford, has no previous convictions. He has been in custody since shortly after the attack.
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The court heard Ziflai met the woman on a dating website and gave her a false name. They arranged to meet at a house and she was driven there by her mother. She told him in advance they would not be having sex, the court heard.
Despite this, Ziflai raped the woman four times and sexually assaulted her before she managed to leave the house and call her mother.
Ms Justice Creedon noted the attack was premeditated by Ziflai, who gave the woman a fake name. She noted the attack had a significant impact on the woman, who has suffered with PTSD and depression as a result.
Because he refuses to acknowledge his wrongdoing and, accordingly, has not expressed any remorse for his actions that night, Ms Justice Creedon said there was no mitigation open to Ziflai.
She noted he has no previous convictions, is still a young man and has a long life ahead of him upon his release from prison.
The judge handed down a 10-year jail sentence, and suspended the final year on a number of conditions. Ziflai will be placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.