Johnny English (26), Streamhill Road, Cork, had pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court last March to raping the 26-year-old tourist on November 26th, 2002, at the geography department of University College Cork.
Mr Justice White said English is "a most definite and serious threat to the women of Cork", and he had been "most perturbed" to learn that English had carried out two further offences of a sexual nature against two separate women in Cork city just days after he raped the Australian.
"You are, perhaps, someone deserving of a life sentence," Mr Justice White said. He noted, however, that Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, counsel for English, had pleaded for a chance of rehabilitation for him, admitting that he had been "out of control" at the time.
Mr Justice White said he had also been asked to take into consideration the unfortunate and sad childhood English had experienced and that his brother's suicide after he raped the tourist had engendered in him "a genuine desire to reform".
"I have doubts about the bona fides of Mr English's intentions," the judge said. He noted that English had not pleaded guilty until after his trial started and he had obliged his victim to relive her ordeal in court.
Balancing the background of English with the impact his crime had on the victim, he suspended the last five years of the 18 years on condition that English avails of psychiatric counselling in prison.
At the sentence hearing last week Det Garda Denis Lynch said English had tampered with locks in toilet cubicles of a Cork pub and a takeaway and assaulted two women there on December 6th, 2002, 11 days after the rape.
Det Garda Lynch said English had 27 previous convictions, four of which involved attacks on women. He was jailed in May 2003 for falsely imprisoning and attacking the two women in December 2002.
He had also been jailed for four years in 1995 for a sexual assault on a woman in 1993 and received a six-months' suspended sentence on March 24th, 2001, when he robbed a mobile phone from a prostitute in Cork city centre.
Mr MacEntee said English's brother, who had been in the pub with him when he met the Australian woman he later raped, has since committed suicide because he could not get over the guilt of having left English alone in the pub with her. English had experienced a deeply troubled childhood and had turned to alcohol from the age of 11.
When he was first convicted of assaulting a woman he was only 15-years-old.
Mr MacEntee suggested that a substantial part of his sentence be suspended to leave him hope that should he avail of the opportunity offered by the prison services for rehabilitation, he could rejoin the community.
Mr George Birmingham SC, prosecuting, said English had entered a plea of guilty during his trial in March when an application made on his behalf to examine the sexual history of his victim was refused.
He pleaded on day four of the trial to one count of rape, having previously pleaded not guilty to raping the victim, orally raping her, attempted anal rape, sexual assault and assault causing her harm on the same occasion.
The guilty plea to one charge of rape was accepted by the State on the understanding that all the facts of the case would be given.
The woman said at the trial that she came to Ireland with two Australian friends for a four-day visit. They were in Dublin and Kilkenny before reaching Cork. They were staying at a B&B and were at the Washington Inn for a few drinks when she met English.
Her friends had left when two men came over and joined her. They said they were brothers and gave their first names, one of them being "John". She finished her present drink and bought one round for all of them.
She said the eldest of the two men left after about an hour and she remained with the second man, "John", with whom she was getting on well. They held hands for a time and also kissed.
They left around 12.15 a.m. and were walking in the university grounds when he attacked and raped her.