A prisoner serving a 20-year sentence for rape and attempted murder was sentenced to a further eight years imprisonment in the Central Criminal Court yesterday for the prison rape of another sex offender in 1996.
In February Anthony Cawley (31), who was repeatedly raped as a child in Trudder House boys' home for travellers, originally from Dun Laoghaire and with a former address in Inchicore, Dublin, pleaded guilty to rape of the 27-year-old remand prisoner in Arbour Hill Prison on September 24th, 1996.
The prison term is to run from May 2002 when a 20-year term Cawley is serving for the rape of a woman ends. His case will be reviewed in 2006, by which time Cawley will have spent a total of 20 continuous years in custody.
Mr Justice O'Higgins warned he was not saying Cawley would get automatic release at the review hearing. The court would want to hear he had applied for, and participated in, both individual psychological counselling and a group sex offenders programme. This is the first case of prison rape to be reported and successfully prosecuted in the Irish courts.
Cawley had been serving 20 years for rape imposed in 1987, and in 1989 he received a concurrent 10-year term for attempted murder.
The victim had shared a cell with him while awaiting sentence for raping a woman. He was later jailed for four years, but this sentence was increased to six years by the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Before sentence, Cawley told his counsel, Mr Barry White SC, that he was willing to undergo any therapy made available to him.
Asked if he had been dismissive of an offer of counselling as was implied by a report in 1996, Cawley replied: "I was told in Wicklow Garda Station by gardai investigating Trudder House the man who abused me was dead. It was then I started having problems in my head. I didn't want to talk to anyone for a while".
The court was told previously that the man who abused Cawley died in Canada. Cawley is currently in isolation in Wheatfield Prison.
Mr Justice O'Higgins said Cawley had pleaded guilty to a extremely serious offence but he had to take a number of factors into account.
He agreed with Mr White that Cawley had none of the advantages of caring parents and privileges afforded to others growing up.
The Judge said: "From the age of five or six he was on the streets. He was frequently beaten by his father, on occasions he was chained naked to the wheels of a wagon. He sought refuge at the age of six or seven in Garda stations and he spent a great deal of time in the custody of the State.
"He was repeatedly raped while in the custody of the People of Ireland and from the age of 10 he was sniffing glue on the streets. By 15 he was deeply involved in crime", he said.
But Mr Justice O'Higgins said that while he accepted Cawley had been brutalised by his upbringing, he had to have regard to the safety of society.
At an earlier hearing, Cawley apologised to his victim and asked for individual psychological counselling in prison to safeguard society on his eventual release.
Cawley accepted "justice had to be done and seen to be done" by the imposition of a consecutive sentence to run from 2002 when his present sentence expires.
Speaking from the witness box, Cawley said he wanted to put it on the record that the remand prisoner was not responsible in any way for the rape he perpetrated on him.
"I, Anthony Cawley, fully aware of the crime I am indicted for, accept justice must be done and must be seen to be done. It was my action alone that made the crime happen".
Garda Adrian Murray, of the Bridewell, told Mr Anthony Sammon SC, prosecuting, that Cawley and the victim were sharing a cell in Arbour Hill on September 21st, 1996. The incident occurred over the weekend.
In a voluntary and full statement after the incident, Cawley said he had threatened the man with a razor blade to get him to comply with his demands for masturbation and then full sex.
The garda said he had sought to dominate the victim and threatened to have the man's entire family killed and to leave the victim's death to last.
Garda Murray said Cawley had 14 previous convictions and was being held in Wheatfield Prison. He is serving a 20-year sentence imposed by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in 1987 for rape of a woman and robbery. Two years later he received a concurrent 10year term for attempted murder.