A judge has adjourned sentencing in the case of a 27-year-old man who abducted and sexually assaulted a female student, because he has "no basis on which to judge if he is likely to re-offend".
Judge Carroll Moran voiced his concerns at Limerick Circuit Court yesterday at the sentencing hearing of Robert Quigley who subjected a 22-year-old woman to an "appalling experience" in the Dublin Mountains last year.
At a previous court hearing, Judge Moran was told how the terrified victim feared she was going to be raped and killed during her 5 1/2 hour ordeal.
Evidence was heard that the woman was out celebrating university exam results at a nightclub in Dublin when she climbed into the back of a car thinking it was a taxi.
She fell asleep and when she awoke Quigley, pretending to be a garda, said drugs had been found in her bag. He told her she was going to be arrested and he tied her hands behind her back.
She was struck repeatedly on the head with punches and with a garda-type baton, and was covered in blood, the court heard.
At one point during her ordeal, as Quigley tried to strangle her with a leather wheel brace holder, he told her he had come close to killing someone once.
The woman's nightmare only ended when she managed to get out of the car as daylight broke and her abductor was startled by the arrival of a group on an orienteering outing.
Quigley, with an address at Seskin View Road in Tallaght, but who was living rough in his car in Tralee, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, sexual assault, and assault causing harm to the woman at Military Road, Glencree, Co Dublin, on November 19th, 2006.
Judge Moran said that Quigley was facing a "substantial" prison sentence because of the gravity of the charges and the "appalling experience he subjected his victim to".
However the judge said that despite studying his trial notes while considering a sentence, he still had no understanding as to why "this man did what he did" and if he was likely to do it again.
"Whatever sentence is imposed, he [Quigley] will have to be released one day and I have no basis on which to judge if he is likely to re-offend.
"So I would like some explanation about why he did what he did for there doesn't appear to be a rational explanation."
Judge Moran acknowledged that the victim - who was in court - would like to see closure in the case and ordered that Quigley be examined by a psychiatrist nominated by the State.
The judge remanded Quigley in continuing custody to allow for psychiatric and probations reports and adjourned sentencing until October 8th next at Tralee Circuit Court.
Quigley remained silent throughout. His victim sat just metres away and was accompanied by family and friends.
In a victim impact statement read out in court last month, Judge Moran heard how her life has been torn apart since her terrifying ordeal. She said that now she no longer trusted people, her confidence was low and she could not be alone, even on the train to work.
On the night of the attack the previously "happy-go-lucky-girl" thought she was going to be raped, and would have preferred to have died.