A man who controversially received a suspended sentence for raping a woman while she slept was jailed yesterday for making a "triumphalist gesture" at his victim.
Adam Keane (20), a bricklayer from Barnageeha, Daragh, Co Clare, will now have to serve the three-year sentence imposed by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Circuit Criminal Court on March 12th.
The judge's original decision to suspend the sentence was criticised by politicians, groups working with rape victims and Keane's victim, Mary Shannon.
Ms Shannon, also from Daragh, Co Clare, who waived her right to anonymity, said she was "absolutely devastated" by the decision and felt her life had been "torn asunder for nothing".
An appeal against the sentence on the grounds of "undue leniency" was subsequently lodged by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Yesterday, however, Mr Justice Carney jailed Keane after finding he had breached the terms under which his sentence was suspended.
After hearing evidence from both Keane and Ms Shannon and members of their families, he found that Keane had "flicked a cigarette at or in the direction of" his victim at Ennis railway station on the evening of March 12th last.
"I am satisfied he made a triumphalist gesture which was a breach of his bond on which the ink was barely dry," Mr Justice Carney said.
"In view of the limb this court went out on in respect of Mr Keane, he should have acted with the greatest circumspection."
Mr Justice Carney said yesterday's hearing arose out of "an editorial in the Irish Examiner" and he accepted the evidence of the victim and her family that Keane had made the gesture only hours after leaving the court in March.
He ordered that Keane begin to serve the sentence immediately. "My tolerance of breaches of court orders is well known to be nil and the threshold of proof I require to find a breach is very low."
Keane, his mother Annie Keane and a female friend all gave evidence in which they denied the gesture and said they had gone out of their way to avoid contact or confrontation.
Mr Justice Carney also addressed the controversy over the suspended sentence, saying he had imposed it "in full knowledge of the vituperation that would fall on my head from all quarters".
By reason of that knowledge, he said, he had "switched off" from "Joe Duffy, the tabloids and the Sunday papers".
He said that in "a broadly similar case" the sentence he had imposed was suspended on appeal. He believed sentences should be consistent and that was why he had followed the guidance of the earlier case.