A MAN, Shaun O’Donnell Whinmore Rapist, who raped a woman as she slept in bed beside her partner and her newborn baby has been jailed for eight years.
Following a Central Criminal Court trial, Shaun O’Donnell (34) was found guilty by a jury of one count of rape and one count of sexual assault in a Donegal house on March 26, 2021.
A local detective, Garda, told Mark Lynam SC, prosecutor, at a previous hearing that O’Donnell had stayed over with the woman and her partner for drinks the night before.
Shaun O’Donnell raped the wife after climbing into bed where the couple was lying next to their newborn child the following morning.
Initially thinking it was her partner, the woman turned around to see Shaun O’Donnell. She left the room and entered the shower; then she told her partner and relatives.
Shaun O’Donnell claimed he had no memory of anything occurring when confronted. Under interrogation by Gardaí, he refuted the charge.
Shaun O’Donnell of Woodlands Way, Whinmore, Leeds, UK, has multiple past convictions, including for dangerous driving and assault. He employs himself in UK construction.
The woman informed the court that she wanted Shaun O’Donnell listed but did not want her name released.
Mr Justice David Keane said Shaun O’Donnell’s conduct was a “fundamental, almost indescribable breach of trust” occurring in the victim’s house, in front of her boyfriend and little child.
The woman should have found this a haven of “ultimate comfort and security,” he said, but it became a place of degradation. As an aggravating consideration, the judge further mentioned the “grave harm” done to the victim.
Shaun O’Donnell’s crime, he added, was “opportunistic” and “committed on impulse.”
With a nine-year rape count headline sentence, the court said Shaun O’Donnell had neither expressed regret nor accepted the verdicts.
According to the probation report, Shaun O’Donnell claimed to have no memory of his crime, but the court remarked that this was “not in his nature.”
Shaun O’Donnell scored a low to moderate risk of re-offending.
Mr Justice Keane pointed out O’Donnell has past convictions, but none for sexual or violent offences.
After weighing Shaun O’Donnell’s particular situation and the mitigating circumstances, Mr Justice Keane sentenced the rape count to eight years.
Not suspending any portion of the sentence, the judge noted Shaun O’Donnell refused to participate in a victim-oriented activity and that “no realistic prospect” of promoting recovery existed.
Mr Justice Keane said the court decided with some “unease” not to mandate a period of post-release monitoring since Shaun O’Donnell had declared his intention to go back to the UK following his release from custody.
Regarding the charge of sexual assault, the judge additionally sentenced Shaun O’Donnell concurrently for two years and eight months. Mr Justice Keane backdated the sentences to last February’s custody of O’Donnell.
In a lengthy victim impact statement presented at a prior sentence hearing, the woman said it was somewhat challenging to put into words the “emotional, physical pain, hurt and trauma” she has had since Shaun O’Donnell entered her house and raped her.
With her new kid, her partner, and their new house, she claimed she had been “the happiest girl alive” and had been loving her first time of mothering. She claimed that although her world was upside down by the incident, she and her partner were working very hard to realise their ambitions of the life they wanted.
She described the agony of learning it was him in her bed before running into the shower and washing herself raw. She mentioned that her body had not completely healed from having her kid.
The woman told the court, “There is no easy way to tell your loved ones you were raped in between your boyfriend and newborn baby,” saying it was the worst event of her life.
She claimed the attack had caused great disturbance among her extended family and that she couldn’t even bring her kid for walks, fearing she would run into Shaun O’Donnell’s relatives.
She claimed she lost her confidence and her contented self and required therapy.
“It was a long time before I looked at my newborn baby and did not feel guilt – guilt my baby wasn’t getting my 100 per cent attention..”
Mr Justice Keane said yesterday that the victim impact statement “impressively written and deeply affecting” reflected the “greatest credit” on the woman “as a victim of crime and a human being.”
He hoped her future was great.
Defending, the friend of the rapist, Shane Costelloe SC, argued in an earlier hearing that his client had a decent employment history and a previously good character.
He turned in several testimonies letters.
Shaun O’Donnell had support in court from his long-term partner, from whom he has children.
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