Ireland Man Convicted of Wife Rape
Originally published by The Associated Press, July 18, 2002
DUBLIN, Ireland — A 46-year-old man was found guilty Thursday of raping his wife, the first such conviction in Irish legal history.
The estranged wife testified that her husband raped her in 1997 weeks after the birth of their seventh child.
The 36-year-old woman said she was raped as the couple's new baby lay sleeping at the foot of the bed and the other children slept in nearby rooms.
"What else could I do but lie there? I couldn't scream," testified the woman, who separated from her husband in 1999 after 10 years' marriage.
Sentencing was set for Oct. 25. The man remains free on bail until then. The maximum penalty for rape is life imprisonment.
Journalists were barred from publishing the name of the man or his estranged wife, who both testified during the four-day trial.
The eight-man, four-woman jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty.
The man had originally pleaded guilty, then changed his plea to not guilty at his original sentence hearing in 2000.
