Wife ‘discovers her husband repeatedly raped her with household objects while she was passed out after finding hideous images on his computer’

A shocked woman discovered her husband of more than 20 years had repeatedly raped her with household objects while she slept after finding the “horrific images” on his computer.

The 49-year-old Dublin man was found guilty by a jury earlier this month of 11 charges of sexually abusing his wife at their family home between January 2005 and September 2014.

The woman, 50, has now spoken of her shock since discovering the 'perverse, indecent, horrible images' stored on her husband's computer, saying it was 'like a bomb went off' in her head.

“He changed my past, my present and my future,” she said in her victim impact statement, which was read out at the man's Central Criminal Court hearing on Monday.

She added how many unanswered questions she still has.

'Why did he do this to me? How long had it been going on? How did I not know? Was he always like this?'

The woman said she felt like she was married to a stranger who had inflicted “the most horrific and violent abuse” on her.

Her husband was found guilty by a jury of 11 charges of sexual abuse by “penetrating her vagina with various objects.”

The verdicts were handed down following a retrial earlier this month, after the jury in the first trial returned not guilty verdicts on four counts and could not agree on the remaining counts.

The abuse took place in the family home on unknown dates between January 2005 and September 2014.

According to the state, the woman was unconscious and unable to give consent when her husband committed the rapes.

A local detective told Eilis Brennan SC, prosecuting, that the abuse came to light when the woman discovered images her husband had taken of her on his computer in March 2019.

She asked him to leave the family home and filed a complaint with the Garda Síochána. The couple was married for more than twenty years and has children together.

The court previously heard evidence that the woman discovered the footage when she went looking for a video her husband had taken of her while she was drunk. The woman said her husband threatened to send the video to her parents and she wanted it deleted.

The court heard the woman had a drinking problem during their marriage, which she later addressed through counselling, and was taking medication for depression.

The defense was that all sexual acts that took place were consensual.

The man maintains his innocence and does not accept the jury's verdict, Maurice Coffey SC defended at the hearing. He has been in custody since he was convicted of the offenses earlier this month.

In her victim impact statement, which was read out by one of the investigating gardaí in the case, the woman said she did not know her husband was 'into porn', let alone using her for his 'sick fantasies'.

She said she suffered from anxiety, depression, insomnia and panic attacks in the aftermath of their marriage. She said she was facing financial problems and had to ask her family for money. “It was unbearable,” she said.

She said she had removed every memory of the man from her family home. “But I cannot erase the pain, humiliation and degradation he caused me,” she said.

The woman thanked her family and gardaí for their help and support. She said she would begin the healing process now.

In mitigation, Mr Coffey asked the judge to take into account the fact that the man had no previous convictions and was a 'law-abiding citizen'.

The man's sister took the stand during his sentencing hearing and outlined his family background. The court ruled that the man came from a hardworking family. He was privately educated and previously had a good career, the court heard.

Mr Paul Burns remanded the man in custody and set the sentencing date for January 15 next year.