The young woman who was subjected to a horrific gang rape at the hands of five men in the midlands has said that evil came to her door that night, and that those who assaulted her made her feel like she “wasn’t a human being”.
It took more than six years to prosecute the men for the rape and sexual assault of the then 17-year-old who got into a car with them after she became separated from friends late on St Stephen’s night in Tullamore in 2016.
Gabriel Gomes Da Rocha, Eduardo Dias Ferreira Filho, Ethan Nikolaou, Marcos De Silva Umbelino, and Conor Byrne were convicted of rape and sexually assault of the young girl on that night.
The young woman, now 23, gave a harrowing victim impact statement to the Central Criminal Court
She said that she heard one of the occupants call out her full name, and that she thought it was her friends coming to bring her home at the end of a night out in Tullamore, Co Offaly.
Before that night, she was a sociable, happy and hard-working Leaving Cert student who was somewhat innocent, she said.
“Evil had not come to my door until then,” she told the court.
“I blame myself for choosing to be selective about my food, for not staying with my friends…I still hate myself for getting into the car, innocently assuming it must be my friends,” the rape victim said.
“I was so trusting and innocent, I allowed this to happen,” she said, adding that the assault had left her feeling “literally” stupid.
“I felt like spoiled goods. I was robbed of my right to be a dignified human being in my own mind. I hated my body. My own body was virtually taken from me.”
She said that she had experienced suicidal thoughts and had self harmed. She said she wanted her body to change “because I thought the more unattractive I looked the less likely I was to meet the same treatment I was given that night.”
“For the past five years I put this in a box and never came to deal with it fully. Because of that I grew to despise myself and could not properly understand why I felt like this,” she said.
Giving evidence in court had retraumatised her, she said and brought the assaults back in full and “vivid detail”.
“Knowing I was going to have to go back in vivid detail, with no stone unturned, was terrifying. It felt like this weight on my shoulders that no matter where I was, what I was doing, whether I was happy, sad, angry or having fun I was I was bearing this weight I did not deserve to bear and knowing I had to revisit that time killed me.”
The rape victim said she felt sick at the thought of getting into the witness box and of saying something wrong that could be used by her attacker’s lawyers as a “loophole”.
However, she added that giving her in court did mean her attackers would be forced to listen to how they behaved towards another human being “in a most foul manner”.
“They couldn’t hide behind anything. Sure, they could tell whoever they wanted that I was making it all up as I believe they have been doing for the past five years but at the very least, deep down they had to sit there with their shame listening to what they did … they have torn me down to my core and this was my chance to expose them.”
“You haven’t a notion what you have done to my life … you have robbed me of so much and carry yourself as all of you do as if it was no big deal,” she told her attackers.
“If all of you did not defile me none of us would be here. You have ruined so much of my life it has spilled over in to the ones I love the most. How dare you?”
She told the court that it was difficult to be badgered while she was giving evidence about attempting to fight back.
“I am glad I didn’t become violent or fight back. Anytime I showed any bit of refusal I was met with more force. I think I made the right decision, given the situation I was in and the people I was with,” she said.
She said the events of the night consumed her mind, and she dropped out of a number of college courses. Her life has been turned upside down and she suffers from PTSD. she said.
“I felt like spoiled goods. I was robbed of my right to be a dignified human being in my own body,” she told the court.
The girl asked the men to drop her off but they drove along back roads towards Kilbeggan. She was in the back seat with three of the men, and felt a hand moving inside her skirt. When she became flustered, the front seat passenger Gabriel Gomes Da Rocha told her to sit in the front.
The men then began to fondle and grope her and talk about her as if she wasn’t there. One said: “Ah lads, she is good, we are all getting it tonight”, the girl later told Gardai.
She tried to push their hands away but the men continued to sexually assault her.
After parking the car at a remote spot, all five men got out. Da Rocha then got back in, and raped the 17 year old without saying anything.
Umbelino then got in and raped the girl again.
After Umbelino left the car, Conor Byrne then got into the car and raped the victim. The woman asked him to stop but Byrne didn’t.
Nikolaou then got into the car and sexually assaulted the girl with his hand, before the car was driven back to Tullamore.
The 17 year old was crying and wanted to leave the car but Da Rocha and Ferreira Filho stopped her from getting out. They were also convicted of false imprisonment.
Da Rocha then raped her again at the same time as Ferreira Filho forced his penis into her mouth. Da Rocha was convicted of a second count of rape and Ferreira Filho was found guilty of oral rape.
The victim was then let go from the car and CCTV footage captured her running hysterically and in great distress from the car park.
The court had heard that at 6.09am, Conor Byrne sent text messages in which he discussed the four men “riding the same woman”.
He wrote: “She was fit, I blew my load in her….I became a lot closer with the boys”.
“There is some funny videos” he later texted, using four laughing face emojis. Gardai gave evidence that Umbelino had made a video of Nikolau sexually assaulting the victim – and Nikolaou had made a video of Umbelino raping the girl.
Speaking directly to Conor Byrne, who pleaded guilty at the last minute, in her statement, the victim told him: “I will never be the same person after what you and your friends did.”
“I do believe that after all this time you have recognised your guilt. I also believe the best way to move on is to forgive. I don’t think I will ever forgive the other four, but in time I will try my best to forgive you.”
“In return, I ask that you don’t let this be the defining moment of your life. Prove to others and yourself that you have learned from your wrongdoings and have become a better person”.
Addressing the other four men, who denied all the charges, she said: “You give me no reason to address you by your name.
“All of you have made me feel like I wasn’t even a human being. What you did has stripped me of all that I am and rot me to the core. How could you take pleasure in doing something so horrific to another person?”
“The part that really gets me is that four of you have shown absolutely no remorse for what you have done”.