A man has been sentenced to an 8 year jail sentence for raping a homeless woman in Limerick five years ago.
The Limerick Leader reported that 37-year-old Romanian Cristian Gogosiou, of Mount Kenneth Place, Limerick was found guilty by a jury of one count of rape and one count of oral rape in respect of the woman at the Central Criminal Court earlier this year.
The victim, who was 31 years old at the time and cannot be named, said that Gogosiou was well dressed when he approached her on the 26th of September, 2019 and offered her €6,000 and jewelry in exchange for sexual intercourse.
Gogosiou has 37 previous convictions in Ireland as well as 12 overseas convictions.
The court heard that the woman was dealing with issues related to alcohol and drug abuse at the time and had told Gogosiou that she needed to relieve herself and headed down an alley.
Gogosiou produced a medium sized flick knife telling the victim he would “cut off her giblets” before pushing her against a wall and vaginally raping her.
Courts.ie reported that during an interview with Gardaí Gogosiou said he raped the homeless woman “because it was easy”.
Today sentencing judge Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford handed down a 10 year sentence but suspended the final 2 years while backsating the start date for time spent in custody to May 23, 2022.
A headline sentence of 12 years had been set after it was established that due to the aggravated nature of the assault it fell into the higher category of offending, but this was reduced due to the mitigating factors of Gogosiou – who is a father of three children, one of whom is in Romania- being a foreign national and having to serve time in an Irish prison.
A Romanian criminal who told gardai he preyed on vulnerable women "because it was easy" has been jailed for eight years for raping a homeless woman in a Co Limerick alleyway.
Cristian Gogosiou (37) with an address at Mount Kenneth Place, Limerick, has 37 previous convictions in… pic.twitter.com/TYNciKBG79
— Courts News Ireland (@courtsnewsIRL) July 29, 2024