A MAN has been jailed for 15 years for ambushing a woman in the public toilets in Kanturk and subjecting her to 40 minutes of rape and sexual violence.

Przemyslaw Jakubowski (36) grabbed the woman from behind as she was drying her hands in the toilets and pulled her into a cubicle where he threatened to kill her. He was wearing women's underwear at the time which was later found in his apartment by gardai.

Jakubowski, who has a conviction for attempted rape in his native Poland, was found guilty by a jury following a 12day trial last May. The court heard he does not accept the jury's verdict.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said that Jakubowski "gratified himself in an abnormal manner" during the assault by wearing women's clothes. He said this was an aggravating factor.

He said there were no mitigating factors in Jakubowski's favour aside from him finding prison more difficult in Ireland because he is a foreign national.

The judge said the offence was one of the most serious to come before the courts in recent times and it was "deeply worrying" that Jakubowski has a previous conviction for attempted rape.

He noted the victim has been "rendered into a changed state" and has suffered deep stress and scarring. "One can only hope that the victimisation she suffered resulting from this trial is coming to an end," he added.

He jailed Jakubowski for 15 years and ordered that he be registered as a sex offender.

Inspector Declan O'Sullivan told the court that the Kanturk had been living in fear following that incident and that there was great anxiety among women in the town in the three weeks before Jakubowski was taken into custody.

The inspector said nothing like it had ever happened before in the town. He said gardai got huge co-operation from the community in their investigation, including the Polish community who were horrified by the attack.

Jakubowski of Egmont Court, Earls Street, Kanturk, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 12 counts including rape, oral rape, anal rape, threats to kill, assault causing harm, sexual assault and false imprisonment during the attack on the woman on the afternoon of March 9, 2010. He was convicted on 11 counts and found not guilty by direction of the judge of one count of oral rape. He held his head in his hand and muttered to himself as the verdicts were read out.

Inspector O'Sullivan said Jakubowski had arrived in Ireland earlier that year and was doing odd jobs in construction. He said he has four previous convictions in Poland, including one for attempted rape and robbery.

He told Ms Una Ní Raifeartaigh SC, prosecuting, that Jakubowski ambushed the woman as she was in town that afternoon. He got her in a headlock and locked the door before pushing her head against the cubicle wall. She noticed he was wearing a cap, dark sunglasses and dark clothes with blue women's underwear and a stained pink slip underneath.

There was an unopened packet of tights held up by his thong and a can of lager in his jacket pocket.

He told her to "pull down your pants or I'll kill you". Over the next 40y minutes he repeatedly raped her orally, anally and vaginally as well as sexually assaulting her.

At one point the attacker's phone rang. He took it out and checked to see who the caller was but did not answer. Throughout the attack she pleaded with him not to kill her and he responded: "Shut up you bitch."

When he finished he told her to stay on the ground and to give him "a few minutes". He fled and she ran out, flagged down a passing car and alerted gardai.

The garda said the victim's DNA was found under Jakubowski's fingernails and on a pink, blood-stained slip which he was wearing at the time. Jakubowski's DNA and fingerprints were also found on a beer can which had been left at the crime scene.

Defence counsel Tim O'Leary SC said he was not able to offer much mitigation because his client did not accept the trial verdict. He asked Mr Justice McCarthy to take into account that Jakubowski is a foreign national and will therefore find prison here more difficult.