Stacey Curtin was homeless and living in a tent when she was sexually assaulted by Francis Sweeney Ward in 2018
Stacey Curtin was homeless and living in a tent when she was sexually assaulted by Francis Sweeney Ward in 2018.
Horrified Stacey woke at 3am on the morning of October 10 that year to find that Sweeney, who had previously been convicted of raping a teenage mother in a ‘drinking den’, had his fingers in her private parts.
After a traumatic trial, Sweeney was jailed in 2019 for 18 months and Stacey didn’t hear his name again until earlier this month when pals told her the predator had returned to Cork.
Breakdown
“I was shocked,” Stacey, who is still homeless, told the Sunday World. “One of my friends is after taking me in because I was after having a breakdown over this. What if he is walking along the streets and recognises me?
“What if I’m asleep and it happens again? So I’m sleeping on a friend’s couch now, I’m not on the streets anymore. But I was when I found out he was around.
“And now I’ve people keeping an eye out and they’ll tell me if they see him again.”
Stacey said she was with friends outside the Simon Community Emergency Hostel on Anderson’s Quay earlier this month when one of them mentioned Sweeney.
“Obviously, I questioned them about it,” she said. “The person said: ‘Jesus, Stacey, I totally forgot he’d done that to you’.
Sympathetic
“And that’s fair enough, because this was years ago. But then they said he’d been drinking there the night before. So that’s how I found out – but I’d prefer that over bumping into him.”
Francis Sweeney led from court after his rape conviction
Stacey said she immediately contacted gardai in relation to Sweeney’s return.
She continued: “The guards, even though they did say that they couldn’t do anything unless he does something first, were very sympathetic about it. It’s just they legally can’t do anything.
“But I wasn’t the first person he did this to. So that’s why I spoke out at the trial and why I’m speaking out again.
“He’s a dangerous, dangerous man and women should be made aware he’s here in Cork.
“I genuinely don’t believe anybody changes that much.
“If you have a history of doing something like this multiple times, you’ll always be dangerous.”
At Sweeney’s sentencing for the sexual assault of Stacey, Detective Sergeant Kieran O’Sullivan revealed the then 50-year-old, also known as Ward, was already on the Sex Offenders Register for a previous case where he was convicted and sentenced for rape in 2007.
Courageous
Similarly, Sweeney’s victim was a vulnerable young woman.
He was convicted of multiple counts of rape and jailed by Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins at the Central Criminal Court.
The jury found Sweeney guilty on three counts of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault of the teenager on September 6, 2004, in her home in Galway city, which the judge said seemed to be used by men as “a drinking den”.
The judge certified him as a sex offender and said “this was a vicious, unprovoked attack on a young girl who was particularly vulnerable”.
He noted the victim impact report “showed this is a remarkable young woman, very courageous, very brave”.
Crowd
He said the report showed she had post-traumatic stress after the attack, but said “she has coped better than some with this serious crime”. Mr Justice O’Higgins said Sweeney had not expressed any remorse for inflicting an ordeal “which was quite protracted”.
He imposed a sentence of nine years’ imprisonment on the count of rape and six-and-a-half years each on the counts of attempted rape and sexual assault, with the sentences to run concurrently.
Francis Sweeney leaving the Midlands
Sweeney was one of a large crowd of men who arrived uninvited at the victim’s home for a long drinking session.
He was still there the next morning after all the others had left. He then violently raped the young woman after following her to the bathroom.
Evidence
Sweeney went voluntarily to gardai the next day but denied having any physical contact with the complainant. The trial heard that DNA evidence disproved his claim.
At the time, Sweeney had 45 previous convictions since 1991, including four for assault.
Most of the others were for road traffic and public order offences.
During his 2019 trial for the attack on Stacey, Judge Sean Ó Donnabháin noted Sweeney’s latest victim was a “young woman living on the outer rim of the margins of society.
“Francis Sweeney,” he said, “sexually assaulted her at a time when she was a recovering heroin addict.
“She was a very vulnerable person,” he said.
The judge commended the excellence of the garda response to the initial situation in the early hours of the morning, where they managed to protect her from the dangerous situation she was in even though she was reluctant to make a complaint.
Dangerous
The judge also commented on the professionalism of the follow-up investigation and the actions of a garda who gained the trust of Stacey, who eventually decided to make a complaint.
In her victim impact statement, which was read out in court, Stacey said: “Francis Sweeney Ward, you did not have my consent but the truth always trumps lies.
“You have been found guilty, finally, after two years.
“You won’t be a monster that I was frightened I would see somewhere. You were just a person who broke the law and didn’t escape the consequences of your actions.
“If I stopped you doing this to any other vulnerable woman, then going through this was worth the pain. I am not a victim now. I am a survivor.”
Victim Stacey Curtin and sex attacker Francis Sweeney
News in 90 Seconds – Monday, September 15