Rape threats by sex offender as probation workers recommend assessment by Safer Lives programme
The matter was heard at Waterford Courthouse.
A sex offender made a series of furious rape threats against his female neighbour, a Waterford court has heard.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Waterford Circuit Court for an in camera hearing before Judge Eugene O’Kelly.
The court heard about the incident through his probation officer. The officer said that on a date in August this year, he made threats to "rape his female neighbour" in a text to his probation officer. Two days afterwards, he met with his probation officer in her work premises and became aggressive. He started shouting that if he was a woman he would be "listened to" and made lewd statements about the female body.
The man has been under supervision for a number of years and regularly met with the Probation Services.
One probation worker said that "it's extremely difficult" to be under a years-long supervision order but the offender has "consistently refused to engage" with sex-offender-related treatment.
The man claimed to have been repeatedly abused as a child by an adult, who is now dead. The court heard from defence counsel Brian P. O’Shea, who said, “In his probation report, he’d been for years sexually assaulted as a child. He had a concern of this person abusing others and that person died, they weren’t held to account."
In court, Judge O'Kelly noted that this allegation of abuse had been investigated, but the man interrupted with the comment: "It was never investigated."
After his Sex Offender Risk Assessment, his probation officers made a joint decision to re-enter his offence because of the "escalation" in his hostilities towards women and inability to manage his emotions.
Mr O'Shea said that the threat came "purely from frustration" after his neighbour called him a paedophile.
"His offences were against adult females," he said.
The probation workers recommended an assessment be made by the Safer Lives program to ascertain if he would be suitable for treatment. Judge O'Kelly called for the matter to be re-entered in four months time and ordered the man to engage fully with the assessment process.
