A man who earlier this year received a 12-year sentence for falsely imprisoning and seriously assaulting a young woman in the Dublin Mountains in November 2006, was yesterday given a six-year sentence for subjecting his girlfriend in Kerry to a lesser ordeal a few months later.
Robert Quigley (27), a bouncer in Tralee, had been going out with Bridget Donegan (21) and was in a loving relationship with her when, in August 2006, he suddenly changed towards her, brought her to a remote woodland in Kerry and assaulted her.
He also threatened that she and her family would be injured by gangsters from Dublin, his sentencing hearing in Tralee Circuit Criminal Court heard this week.
Ms Donegan was forced to seek loans and hand money to Quigley to offset the threats from the fictitious gang, the court heard.
Two weeks ago, Quigley (27), Seskin View Road, Tallaght, Dublin, pleaded guilty to assaulting Ms Donegan at Dooneen Woods, Castleisland, on August 20th, 2006.
He also pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning her on the same date. There were further guilty pleas to charges of making demands with menaces of sums of €4,000 and €8,000 and to stealing those sums of money from Ms Donegan between August 20th and November 1st 2006.
Passing sentence yesterday, Judge Carroll Moran said the threats were fabricated but the critical point was that Ms Donegan believed him.
The judge recalled the psychiatric report he had requested in the earlier Dublin Mountains case dealt with already in the court.
It said Quigley suffered no major mental illness but had a history of "fantasising and fabricating stories" and there were hints of self-harm. "His behaviour on this occasion and on the occasion of the other offences was alarming."
It left the greatest number of question marks, the judge said and he was "strongly" recommending all psychiatric and psychological care be given to Quigley while in custody.
In the previous case, the last four years of the 12-year sentence were suspended to ensure that when he was released he would be under the care of the probation service, Judge Moran said.
"It would be quite wrong and irresponsible to release this man into the community without some kind of strict supervision," the judge said.
The facts in the Kerry case were not as serious and the ordeal not as bad as in the Dublin Mountains case - but this was not to belittle what Ms Donegan had suffered, the judge said.
On a plea of guilty the appropriate sentence was six years to run from yesterday, Judge Moran added.
In November 2006, Robert Quigley, posing as a hackney cab driver, picked up a young woman in the city centre in the early hours who had been celebrating her graduation.
Pretending to be a garda he imprisoned the young woman in his car and took her to the Dublin and Wicklow mountains, subjecting her to a terrible ordeal during which he brutally assaulted her and sexually assaulted her.
He was given a 12-year sentence in Tralee last month for these offences, with the final four years suspended.
Reporting restrictions prohibit revealing the identity of the injured party in the Dublin Mountains case because a sexual assault was involved.