An American actor who raped a 19-year-old woman in a Dublin Airbnb and choked her until she passed out has been jailed for five years.
Kevin Yungman (32) pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one charge of raping the woman in June 2018.
Yungman, with an address in Florida, was arrested in the US in August 2024 and extradited back to Ireland.
The court heard that Yungman met the Brazilian woman in Paris three months before the assault in an Airbnb at Usher’s Quay in Dublin’s city centre.
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She was 19 at the time and was working in Dublin, while Yungman was 25 years old.
In Paris they had consensual sex, but Yungman had told her to take a deep breath before he placed a hand on her neck, causing her to pass out.
Yungman later explained to her this was a technique he did when he was having sex. He said when a person passes out it feels like you have taken drugs, adding that it was normal and suggested it could be addictive. The woman told him she was scared by it.
They met in a Dublin Airbnb the following June. They had consensual sexual activity before Yungman raped the woman.
He placed his arms around her neck and squeezed hard. She tried to keep his arms away from her but she could not move out.
The woman later told gardaí she could not cope with it and asked him to “please stop” telling him “my body cannot take it”. Yungman said he would give her a break and they could go back to it later.
Det Gda Kerrie Sullivan told Anne Rowland, senior prosecuting counsel, that Yungman was questioned by gardaí immediately after the rape when he was stopped at Dublin Airport. He strenuously denied choking the woman and said any activity was consensual.
He was released without charge after questioning and was permitted to return to the US pending direction from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The court heard the plea was acceptable to the DPP and was based on this rape.
In a statement to the court, the woman described experiencing panic attacks, mood swings, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, dysfunctional relationships and losing her faith in God.
“At 19, I didn’t properly understand what was happening,” said the woman, who had just lost both of her parents.
“In hindsight, I was vulnerable when I met him and he saw this in me ... This was manipulation and not my fault,” she said.
“When I truly felt alive again, was when I heard him say the word ‘guilty’,” the woman said, adding that “instantly life felt colourful again”.
Yungman’s mother took the stand, telling the woman: “From the deepest place in my heart, and as a mam and as a woman, I want to say sorry. There is nothing that I can say that is going to erase the pain. I want you to know that I heard every word that you said and I feel your pain”.
She said she taught her children the difference between right and wrong, and “what happened to you should not happen to anyone”.
“I believe in accountability and that every wrongdoing must have a consequence. He needed to acknowledge his actions,” she said.
The thought of her son being in an Irish prison while she is in America is “breaking my heart”, she said, but “even in our pain we understand that justice must be served”.
“Even in our pain we know we stand behind the truth and we know this is the truth. I pray every day that you heal from this,” she said.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt said it was very unusual in a case such as this for a parent to take the stand and address the court in this manner. He said: “Your son is very fortunate”.
The judge imposed a sentence of six years with the final year suspended on strict conditions. He backdated this to August 2024, when Yungman went into custody in the US.
