CITY TRIBUNE
Jail for weightlifter who pinned woman on bed and assaulted her
A nightclub bouncer pinned a woman face-down on his bed and violently assaulted her as she struggled to get free from his grip, a court has heard.
Bodybuilder and former gym instructor, Raymond Stewart (30), from Drumaveg, Moycullen, who has represented Ireland at weightlifting competitions abroad, pleaded guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting the young woman, causing injuries to her back, neck, shoulder, hip, arms and a laceration to her upper lip at his rented accommodation in Galway on February 11 last year. He also pleaded guilty to a second charge of falsely imprisoning her against her will.
The court heard the victim, her boyfriend and a male friend were socialising in the Four Aces Casino earlier that night and met Stewart outside afterwards. They didn’t know him but he invited them back to his house for a party.
He gave them drink at his house.
The woman’s next recollection was waking up face-down on a bed in an upstairs bedroom. Stewart was on top of her.
She said he covered her mouth with his left hand and his right hand was “ripping” at her. She had trouble breathing but she began to struggle with him, managing to pinch his neck with one free hand while trying to break free.
She said the straps on the top she was wearing broke in the struggle and her breasts were exposed. The struggle went on for a long time and he kept telling her to ‘stop’.
She kept pinching and screaming at him and he eventually let her go, she said.
She ran downstairs and found her boyfriend outside the property, wandering in a disorientated state.
They went to the Garda Station at 8am that morning to report the incident.
Garda Diarmuid Cloonan said the woman was in a very distressed state when he met her. She attended the sexual assault unit and photographs were taken of extensive bruising to several areas on her body.
A medical report stated considerable force had been used to cause such bruising to the woman’s body.
The woman did not want to be in court but her victim impact statement was read into evidence.
In it, she said she no longer felt safe in other people’s houses and disliked going upstairs on her own any more.
Garda Cloonan said Stewart had seven previous convictions and this offence had been committed while he was out on bail.
Stewart expressed remorse for his actions. He said he drank several double whiskeys that night and had also taken testosterone enhancing steroids which he knew made him aggressive.
Mr John Kiely, SC, defending, said his client lived with his mother and two brothers in Moycullen.
His father had died suddenly in front of him when he was young and that had a serious effect on his client, he said.
“He has significant prowess in weightlifting and has represented Ireland abroad,” Mr Kiely added.
The court heard Stewart had been a licensed security man working at various night-clubs prior to this conviction.
Judge Rory McCabe said this serious incident took place late at night when a lot of alcohol had been consumed.
“The victim was tired and disorientated. That was obvious to the accused because of the account he gave to Gardai.
“He took advantage of the situation and the best that can be said is that at one stage, according to his own account, he may have misinterpreted the situation, but once the victim came to her senses that is when the real problem started. She got herself into a situation that she never intended and this resulted in the accused behaving as he did and being charged with very serious offences,” the judge said.
He pointed out the woman’s version of what happened was entirely credible and he hoped she could put this behind her and get on with her life.
Judge McCabe said the headline sentence for each offence was four years in prison, but he said the accused was entitled to 50% credit for the early plea.
He imposed two years on each charge to run concurrently.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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