A Pakistani man who viciously attacked and raped three women within six months has been jailed for 21 years by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court.
Salman Aslam Dar (23), a postgraduate computer science student originally from Lahore, pleaded guilty to raping the women between February and June 2004 at three locations in Dublin city.
Mr Justice Carney described the rapes as the type which incurred fear within the community of having a serial rapist in its midst. He jailed Dar for seven years for the rape of each woman.
Referring to a recent judgment by the Court of Criminal Appeal, which reduced to 15 years a 21- year sentence he had previously imposed on a man who raped three women in his apartment, Mr Justice Carney suspended the last two years of each seven-year sentence on Dar, who has an Irish address at Abbey View, Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo.
Mary Ellen Ring SC, prosecuting, told the court that the first attack, which involved oral rape and aggravated sexual assault, happened on February 7th last year at the car park of the Local Government Computer Services Board near Phoenix Park; the second was at Redmill apartments, Brunswick Street North in Smithfield Markets, on April 18th; and the third rape was on June 6th at Jervis Street.
The three victims, a 29-year- old Irish woman, a 23-year-old Polish woman and a 23-year-old Mexican woman , were all blonde and walking home by themselves in early morning when Dar approached and attacked them.
Two of the women were attacked in their apartment buildings after Dar followed them home. Dar beat all three viciously before forcing them into sexual acts.
Det Sgt Joseph Crowe said the first victim had been socialising with friends. While attempting to hail a taxi home, she met Dar at a bus stop on Conyngham Road. After a brief conversation during which he told her he was from Madrid, Spain, she walked away.
He walked beside her and as they approached the Local Government Computer Services Board near Phoenix Park he grabbed her and pulled her inside.
Dar's second victim was walking home after finishing work in a bar in Temple Bar when he first approached her, also in the early hours of the morning. Det Sgt Patrick Lordan described how Dar followed her and managed to get into her apartment building and became very violent.
Garda Marie Murphy said Dar raped his third victim in the early morning at her apartment building on Jervis Street. The woman, who had arrived in Ireland a few months before, had been working in the Grafton Street area and was going into her apartment when Dar forced himself into the building before she could close the door.
Ms Ring told Mr Justice Carney all the victims suffered numerous physical injuries and now feared being alone. The first victim was in court for the sentence hearing but did not wish to give evidence in person.
Dar told Mr Justice Carney from the witness box he was sorry. He asked for forgiveness and said he wanted to be "a good man". When asked by Ms Ring whether this was the first time he had offered an apology, he remained in silence for several minutes before saying: "I am sorry."
Felix McEnroy SC, for Dar, said he was from a respected and prominent family in Lahore where his mother is a consultant physician and his father a professor. He had been diagnosed with a neurological condition at the age of 11 and had been taking medication since then till 2003 when he obtained a computer science degree.
Adrian Hogan, a consultant psychologist who examined Dar following his arrest, told Mr McEnroy that Dar had lived with his brother in Islamabad from when he was 14 and had been sexually abused.
He agreed with Ms Ring that Dar had told him during consultations that he had been drinking before the attacks. Mr Hogan also agreed that according to the evidence, none of the victims mentioned Dar having taken alcohol.
Mr Hogan said that at the time of his consultations with Dar, he had not been charged with the third rape and Dar had not mentioned the third victim to him. He said Dar told him his first victim had been racially abusive toward him, another factor which had not been given in evidence.
Det Sgt Crowe said Dar was arrested two days after he attacked his third victim. Det Sgt Gabriel O'Gara travelled to Heuston rail station on foot of confidential information and met him as he got off a train from Mayo. Blood samples were compared with DNA left on his first two victims. The samples matched. Two of his victims also identified him in informal identity parades.
The court also heard that the investigation involved viewing of hundreds of hours of CCTV footage from the areas where he had attacked and raped his victims.