A serial attempted rapist was jailed for six years at the Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin today.
Mamadou Alpha Bah (28) , who is a native of Guinea and came to Ireland in 2018 as part of a family reunification programme, pleaded guilty to sexual assault and assault causing harm to a woman at a hotel on September 2nd, 2020.
It was reported that the 43-year-old woman had met Bah a month prior to the attack and that the two had been exchanging messages prior to meeting up on that night.
After having some drinks Bah and the woman went to a hotel where the woman willingly went to his room after he invited her to do so. They had some drinks before the woman said that she was going to get a taxi at which point things took a violent turn.
Bah, who has an address at The View, St Wolstans Abbey, Celbridge, Co Kildare, pushed the woman onto the bed, demanded that she remove her clothes and threatened to break her neck at which point the victim said he had “the look of the devil” on his face.
He repeatedly tried to force her legs open and punched her.
The woman asked to use the bathroom to which Bah agreed, and followed her to the toilet. She managed to flee the room while Bah was using the toilet himself and ran down the hotel corridor screaming for help while Bah chased her and shouted ‘Get back in b*tch’.
When the woman fell to the ground Bah tried to drag her back to the room but was disturbed by other guests who had heard the woman’s cries for help.
It was reported that sentencing Judge Martin Nolan took into account Bah’s “valuable” however “late” guilty plea noting that as a French speaking African who speaks little English he would have a difficult time in jail.
Of a maximum 10-year-sentence available to the courts Bah was sentenced to six years in prison,
Bah was jailed for four years last October after being found guilty of sexual assault and false imprisonment of a his flatmate’s girlfriend in 2021.
At that time Naas Circuit Criminal Court heard that the former cleaner at Intel in Leixlip had entered the room of his flatmate’s girlfriend and sexually assaulted her.
The woman – who had come to Ireland 10 days prior to the assault from Eastern Europe – was sleeping with no clothes on when she awoke to find Bah in her bedroom at 7.15am on the 20th of August 2021, shortly after her boyfriend had left for work.
The court heard Bah had told the victim that she was a very good looking woman but that she had pointed out that both of them were in relationships.
He proceeded to tear the bedclothes off the young woman and got on top of her, kissing her, and touching her vagina.
A struggle ensued for about 10 minutes where the screaming victim managed to get Bah to stop after telling him that she wouldn’t go to the Gardaí if he stopped there and then.
His defence council argued that Bah – a Muslim – had no previous convictions at the time.
He told the court that Bah’s father had died shortly before his arrest and that his mother had died while he was in custody.
He denied the charges but was found guilty by the unanimous verdict of a jury with Judge Mary O’Malley Costello sentencing him to five years in prison with the final year suspended on the 9th of October 2023.
It was reported that deportation orders are in place to be enforced on his release from prison.