Beach sex attacker for sentencing next month
A 32-years-old Claregalway man will be sentenced in December for sexually assaulting a woman on a beach at Salthill last year.
Thomas Hughes, Claregalway, pleaded guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court in May to sexually assaulting the woman at Illifanamona Island, (which is situated on the stretch of shoreline between Salthill and Silverstrand), on October 13, 2013.
At the time, Martin Giblin SC (defending) asked for sentence to be adjourned for a time as he was awaiting a psychological report on his client.
Hughes was remanded in custody and sentence was adjourned to July for reports.
The victim told the court in July that she had been sitting alone on the beach when she was attacked from behind by Hughes who had his tee-shirt pulled up over his head at the time.
The attack was sustained and violent and the woman said she thought she was going to be raped and murdered but she fought back, biting Hughes until he let her go and ran away.
Hughes later went to Galway Garda Station that day and said he had tried to rob a woman but he denied he had tried to rape her.
Sentence was adjourned to last week for Hughes to be assessed.
However, the court heard last week that reports from a psychiatrist and a psychologist who has assessed Hughes’ mental state since this offence concurred the accused needed to be assessed by a neuro-psychologist from Beaumont Hospital, who had initially seen him in 2009.
Judge Rory McCabe apologised for the delay to the victim, who was present in court, but said he would have to adjourn sentence to December for an up-to-date report from the neuro-psychologist.