A SERIAL SEX offender who attacked three women in the space of 11 days after meeting them through Tinder has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Patrick Nevin (37) attacked the women during their first meetings with him in 2014 after they had been texting each other on the dating app and via mobile phone.

Today’s sentencing was in relation to two of the attacks - the rape of one woman and the sexual assault of another.

Shortly after midday, Ms Justice Eileen Creedon imposed a sentence of 14 years for rape with two years suspended on the condition that he engage in anger management treatment, and abstain from using bodybuilding or performance-enhancing substances.

She imposed an eight-year sentence for sexual assault, which will run concurrently, and a five-year period of post-release supervision. Nevin’s sentence was backdated to 2015 when he went into custody.

The computer programmer is already serving a five-and-a-half-year sentence for the sexual assault of a Brazilian student he also met on Tinder.

Nevin received this sentence last year after being convicted at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in late 2017. This offence took place at the University College Dublin campus on 23 July 2014, and Nevin continues to deny it.

Nevin - previously of Meadowlands Court, Mounttown Road, Dún Laoghaire, and Dundalk, Co Louth – picked up another victim at her home before driving to a secluded spot in north Dublin.

After some kissing Nevin moved on top of her, but the victim said she didn’t want this.

‘If you were a fella I’d box the head off you’

Nevin became extremely angry and started calling her a “mickey tease” and “c*nt”, and told her she could get out and walk home if she wasn’t going to have sex with him.

He told her that “you shouldn’t have aroused me” and said she was “making a thick out of me”, the court was told.

“I’m a fella, I go to the gym. I’m full of testosterone. If you were a fella I’d box the head off you. But you’re not, therefore I’ll let you walk home instead,” he told her.

One of the women Nevin raped told the court last year she feared he would kill her.

To say I was terrified is an understatement. After he raped me I was convinced he was going to leave me for dead in that area – beside an old graveyard.

“I had images running through my head of how he was going to kill me. He had the strength,” she said.

Guilty pleas

In July 2018 Nevin pleaded guilty to raping this woman at Bellewstown in Co Meath on 12 July 2014, and to the sexual assault four days later of the other woman.

The father-of-two had been due to stand trial but changed his pleas to guilty following a legal ruling which would have allowed the prosecution to introduce evidence from other women describing sexual assault by Nevin on a first date.

After hearing evidence last November, Ms Justice Creedon adjourned sentencing to allow time for a Probation Service report. Last month Kathleen Noctor SC, prosecuting, told the court that the report was not ready.

He knew where they lived

Previously the courts heard that in all of the attacks Nevin would convince the women to meet him for a drive and he would pick them up at their home in a blue BMW. The court heard the women were fearful after the attack because Nevin knew where they lived.

Lawyers for Nevin asked the court to consider in mitigation his guilty plea and said this plea was of comfort to the victims. Paddy McGrath SC, defending, said his client’s plea was an expression of his remorse.

McGrath also said Nevin had written letters of apology to the victims. He said his client was a relatively young man and asked the court to leave him some light at end of the tunnel.

The victim of the 12 July 2014 attack told the court she was convinced Nevin would come to her home and will always be paranoid about it as long as she lives there with her son.

Nevin’s attack on the other woman was recorded on his mobile phone and he can be heard getting angry and telling her to get out and walk home if she didn’t have sex with him.

Sergeant Selina Proudfoot said the number of times the victim said no to Nevin during the 44-minute long ordeal was “notable”.

Previous attack on partner and dogs

Nevin has a previous conviction for assault on a former partner in 2001. The court heard that he battered the woman’s two dogs to death before punching and kicking the woman in a prolonged assault which only ended when he finally fell asleep.

He was jailed for seven years for this attack and released in 2007. In April 2012 he was given a suspended four-year sentence for a firearms conviction.

Garda Sergeant Mark Buckley said that in April 2010 Nevin had committed a minor traffic infringement and then failed to stop.

During a garda pursuit that followed he threw a stun gun from the car. He was still serving this suspended sentence when he committed the sex attacks in July 2014.

Helpline: Dublin Rape Crisis Centre: 1800 77 8888