A member of the Irish Defence Forces has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years for the rape of a fellow soldier at a Dublin hotel.
Kielan Mooney (30) of Bloomfield Park, Derry, was convicted following a trial at the Central Criminal Court last December on a count of anal rape, oral rape and rape of the woman at the Dublin hotel on July 26, 2021.
Two former partners Mooney have now come forward to contradict testimonials given in his favour at a sentence hearing.
The Central Criminal Court heard that two women submitted statements to the court after reading reports in the media about Mooney in which he was described as a dedicated father.
At the outset of the case this morning, Mr Justice Tony Hunt was told that a number of testimonials had been submitted to court at the sentence hearing last month in which Mooney had been described by relatives and friends as “family oriented” and “always striving to provide for his children” who would “miss him dearly”.
He was also described as “idolising” and “adoring” his children and “striving for nothing but the best” for them.
However, one former partner made a statement to say she wanted to let the court know that Mooney did not see the two children he had with her.
She said it had been made out in court that he was a good father and she wanted to correct that “because he is not a good father”.
She said he does not pay any maintenance for the children and she has no contact with him or his family.
Another woman who also shares two children with Mooney wrote that he does not see his children and pays no maintenance for them adding that he always put his social life before their children.
She said he had twice forgotten to pick up their two-year-old from playschool and was “not a good person, not a good role model and I will never let him near my children now”.
The court was told Mooney has a total of five children.
His defence counsel said he did not accept every allegation made in the statement from his second partner.
Judge Hunt said he was concerned that he had been “significantly misled” by the material put forward on his behalf at the sentence hearing.
He said he was equally concerned that Mooney’s children had also been referred to in a bail application after his conviction where it was suggested “with much emotion” that he needed time to see his children before being sentenced.
The judge did not grant bail but said he wondered what might have happened if he had.
Judge Hunt said there was limited room for mitigation in the case as there was no apparent acceptance of the verdict and there did not appear to be any remorse for the significant harm caused by the rapes.
He said it was the woman’s prerogative and privilege as to who and when she would engage in consensual activity and he had no respect for the limits she wanted to place on consensual activity behaving instead in a “selfish, arrogant and forceful way and simply took what he wanted from her”.
The judge said he accepted fully what the woman had said about the effect the rapes had on her life and career and he wished her well and hoped she could begin to get on with her life.
He declined to suspend any portion of the sentence and ordered that Mooney be supervised for two years after his release and have no contact with the woman.
At a trial last December he pleaded not guilty to a total of six charges of rape and sexual assault and was found guilty on three charges.
The now 24-year-old woman, who is also a serving soldier of the Defence Forces, has indicated that while she is content for Mooney to be named in the reporting of the case, she did not wish to be identified.
The jury was told the woman was out socialising with other army members 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 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.
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 the 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.
At the sentence hearing in December the woman read her victim impact statement and 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.
She said she caused “shock and heartbreak” within her family when she disclosed the rape.
The woman said she never expected a man to take away something from her in such a selfish way and described how she struggled with her mental health in the aftermath of the rape.
“I did not want to go through with life anymore,” the woman said, adding 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.
She said “the actions of another person” were continually impacting on her life as she also lost all interest in the hobbies she used to enjoy.
The woman said that through counselling and therapy she has been “allowed to live my life again”.
She spoke of how traumatic she found the trial, seeing Mooney all around the courthouse and waiting on the jury’s verdict.
“I never believed that something over one night could shatter everything I thought and believed in – myself and my future. The hurt does not just disappear,” the woman said.
She said the support she has received from many people have “helped remind me that I am worth more than someone else’s despicable actions”.
She specifically thanked the gardaí and the various supports services in the Army. She said her appreciation for those that helped her in the Army “needs to be recorded”.
The woman also thanked the rape crisis centre, “who reassured me of my safety” and expressed her thanks to her family and friends.
Prosecuting garda agreed with Dominic McGinn SC, defending, that Mooney was fully cooperative with gardaí and answered all their questions.
He agreed that it was his understanding that Mooney’s career with the Army is now “effectively over”.
Mr McGinn asked the court to accept that his client did not set out that evening to commit a rape and submitted that there was “consent to some activity” between Mooney and the woman.
“Every rape is serious and every rape demands punishment,” Mr McGinn said.
Counsel said it was “a complicated case for the jury” because at the outset the woman was consenting to some level of activity.
He acknowledged that a person has a right at any stage to say that I do not consent to this and his client “blatantly ignored that”, counsel said.
“He is criminally liable for what he did and what he did would be viewed as entirely reprehensible by society,” Mr McGinn continued.
“His conduct resulted in injury, trauma and a lifelong impact on her and he deserves to be punished for that,” counsel continued before he asked the court to accept that it is clear that Mooney “is not a bad person”.
Mr Justice Hunt said young men put themselves in the unfortunate position Mooney has put himself in but added there is nobody responsible for it but Mooney himself.
Mr McGinn said there were seven affidavits before the court sworn in by a wide variety of people from the community and his family, outlining that he is an upstanding member of society and that his actions that night were completely out of character.
Counsel said his client is a father of five children, ranging in age from three to 12 years old.
He asked the court to accept that this offence would not have happened if Mooney had not been intoxicated and suggested that “alcohol seems to be a catalyst”.
Mr McGinn asked the court to accept that his client has lost his good character, his career is at an end and that his children will be without their father for some time.
Tags: