A prisoner serving 20 years for rape and attempted murder apologised in court yesterday to a fellow sex offender he raped in Arbour Hill prison. Mr Justice O'Higgins adjourned the case to June 10th to see if counselling was available. "If not, I want to know why not," the judge added.
It was the first case of prison rape to be successfully prosecuted in the Irish courts.
Anthony Cawley (31) said he 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. He asked for psychological counselling in pri son to help him with his problems and to safeguard society on his eventual release.
In February, Cawley, originally from Dun Laoghaire, with a former address in Inchicore, Dublin, pleaded guilty to raping the remand prisoner, who was awaiting sentence for rape, in Arbour Hill prison on September 24th, 1996. The victim was represented at yesterday's hearing in the Central Criminal Court by a barrister who maintained a "watching brief".
After being raped, the victim was jailed for four years for raping a woman, a sentence later appealed by the State on the grounds of leniency.
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. In a voluntary and full statement after the incident, Cawley said he threatened the man with a razor blade to get him to comply with his demands for masturbation and 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 agreed with Mr Barry White SC, defending, that Cawley agreed to speak to gardai when asked, even though as a sentenced prisoner he was entitled to refuse. Cawley has 14 previous convictions and is being held in Wheatfield Prison. He is serving 20 years imposed by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in 1987 for rape of a woman and robbery. In 1989, he received a concurrent 10year term in the Central Criminal Court for attempted murder.
In court, 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."
He said, however, that in the past few months he was scandalised by newspaper allegations in that he raped other prisoners. He said his last offence was in Limerick Prison when he had tried to escape. He received a 10-year prison term for attempted murder.
"I wish to state on the Bible I never committed another act in prison," he said. "I am now in the segregation unit, also known as the isolation unit. I've gone in there several times at my own request because I don't want to be involved in any more fights."
He said the prison officers in the unit were at all times helpful to him when he was down and anxious, they spent their own time talking to him. He underwent counselling with a retired psychologist in Arbour Hill which helped him to speak about his early life.
He said he grew up in Dun Laoghaire and had suffered from an illness. His parents were alcoholic but he was not blaming them as they had tried to help him. He became involved in burglary when he was seven and at nine, in 1976 77, he hung around O'Connell Street with other traveller children sniffing glue.
He was sent to a home in Drogheda and later he was transferred to Trudder House in Newtownmountkennedy where a staff member tried him like a "pet". He had never experienced friendship or love from anyone before this.
After some time, he was beaten and sexually abused by this staff member. He never trusted authority figures again. Years later, when gardai were investigating Trudder House, he found the staff member had died in Canada.