A member of the Irish Defence Forces will be sentenced next January for the rape of a fellow soldier at a Dublin hotel three years ago.
Kielan Mooney (30) of Bloomfield Park, Derry, was convicted following a trial at the Central Criminal Court earlier this month on a count of rape, anal rape and oral rape of the woman at the Dublin hotel on July 26th, 2021.
He had pleaded not guilty to a total of six charges, two charges of rape, two charges of oral rape, a charge of anal rape and a charge of sexual assault. The jury failed to reach a verdict on the three remaining charges.
The now 24-year-old woman, who is also a serving member of the Irish Defence Forces, has indicated that while she is content for Mooney to be named in the reporting of the case, she does not wish to be identified.
Garda Riche Moyston told Patrick Gageby SC, prosecuting, that the woman was out socialising with other army officers that night when they met a group of soldiers from Mooney’s barracks in Donegal.
She and Mooney got speaking and they decided to go back to the woman’s friend’s hotel room in the city centre.
The woman told the trial that Mooney anally raped her in her friend’s hotel room. She said she had asked him to stop but he did not.
Afterwards she went to the bathroom and was crying. She managed to text her friend. Mooney came into the room and asked her what was wrong before he took her by the hand and brought her back into the bedroom. Mooney then forced the woman to perform oral sex on him before he pushed her onto the bed and raped her.
The woman was very distressed. She managed to get back into the bathroom and phoned her friend who told her that she and two other male friends were nearly at the hotel.
Garda Moyston said when the woman’s friends arrived Mooney was dressed. The woman was hysterical and crying. The two men forced Mooney out of the room and gardaí were called.
Mooney was arrested by arrangement the following month. He claimed there had been no anal sex and said whatever other sexual activity had occurred was consensual.
The woman read her victim impact statement into the record. She said that night changed her life and she would not wish what happened to her on anyone.
She said her life had only got going at that point. “I was getting the chance to live the life of a 21-year-old, just having a good time,” she said, adding that she caused “shock and heartbreak” within her family when she disclosed the rape.
The woman described how she struggled with her mental health in the aftermath of the rape.
“I did not want to go through with life anymore,” she continued before she added that it impacted on her work as she could not perform her duties. She had been nominated for a course which would have meant a promotion in work but she was unable to participate.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt thanked the woman for taking the time to read her victim impact statement. He said he hoped that the vindication she got from the jury would help her. “You owe it to yourself to think of yourself now going forward,” he said.
Mr Justice Hunt remanded Mooney in continuing custody and adjourned the case to January 20th for sentence.
