A man who trapped and attacked a woman before beginning to masturbate in front of her has been jailed for five years.

Chico Makamda (36) with an address at Viking House, Coffee House Lane, The Quay, Waterford, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to sexual assault, false imprisonment and robbery at Adare Lane, Dublin, on April 16, 2018.

Judge Melanie Greally sentenced him to seven and a half years for the offences of false imprisonment and robbery, but suspended the final two and a half years for a period of two and a half years on condition that he leave the country within 14 days of his release.

Judge Greally also sentenced him to four years for the offence of sexual assault, which will run concurrently with the other sentences. She backdated the sentence to April 16, 2018, the day he first went into custody.

Garda Ruth Finnegan told Elva Duffy BL, prosecuting, that in the early hours of the morning a woman in her early fifties was on her way home after a night out when she stopped in Adare Lane to relieve herself behind some bins.

Makamda approached her and blocked her in beside the bins. He punched her three times in the stomach and she fell onto the ground, hitting her head on the concrete.

He attempted to pull her jeans down and kept trying to lie on top of her while the woman tried to stop him. He then stood up and began masturbating.

The woman managed to stand up and pull her jeans fully up. Makamda put his penis away but continued to block her from escaping.

Makamda fled when another man arrived and said he would call the gardaí. After he was gone the woman realised that her wallet and phone were missing from her handbag.

Gda Finnegan agreed with Paul Carroll SC, defending, that a lot of what his client said in interview “does not make a heap of sense”.

Makamda has 15 previous convictions, including for an offence of indecency and for the false imprisonment of a woman in a laneway. He is originally from Angola and has been in Ireland since 2009.

Mr Carroll said his client had no connection with any family members and had effectively been homeless for some time. He asked the judge to take into consideration the fact that Makamda had a low range of cognitive ability according to a psychiatric report.

Judge Greally said it was clear from the victim impact report that the woman had been “completely traumatised” and that she now fears to go outside. She said each of the offences were aggravated by the impact they had on the victim and by the level of violence.

She said she was taking into consideration his early guilty pleas, his admissions to gardaí, his social isolation in Ireland and the difficulty that prisoners from outside the country face while imprisoned.

Online Editors