![\"Francis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/PL_775479_highres.jpg\")
<\/p>\nStacey Curtin was homeless and living in a tent when she was sexually assaulted by Francis Sweeney Ward in 2018\n<\/p>\n
Stacey Curtin was homeless and living in a tent when she was sexually assaulted by Francis Sweeney Ward in 2018.<\/p>\n
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 \u2018drinking den\u2019, had his fingers in her private parts.<\/p>\n
After a traumatic trial, Sweeney was jailed in 2019 for 18 months and Stacey didn\u2019t hear his name again until earlier this month when pals told her the predator had returned to Cork.<\/p>\n
Breakdown<\/p>\n
\u201cI was shocked,\u201d Stacey, who is still homeless, told the Sunday World. \u201cOne 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?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if I\u2019m asleep and it happens again? So I\u2019m sleeping on a friend\u2019s couch now, I\u2019m not on the streets anymore. But I was when I found out he was around.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now I\u2019ve people keeping an eye out and they\u2019ll tell me if they see him again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stacey said she was with friends outside the Simon Community Emergency Hostel on Anderson\u2019s Quay earlier this month when one of them mentioned Sweeney.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I questioned them about it,\u201d she said. \u201cThe person said: \u2018Jesus, Stacey, I totally forgot he\u2019d done that to you\u2019.<\/p>\n
Sympathetic <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s fair enough, because this was years ago. But then they said he\u2019d been drinking there the night before. So that\u2019s how I found out \u2013 but I\u2019d prefer that over bumping into him.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Francis Sweeney led from court after his rape conviction<\/p>\n
Stacey said she immediately contacted gardai in relation to Sweeney\u2019s return.<\/p>\n
She continued: \u201cThe guards, even though they did say that they couldn\u2019t do anything unless he does something first, were very sympathetic about it. It\u2019s just they legally can\u2019t do anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I wasn\u2019t the first person he did this to. So that\u2019s why I spoke out at the trial and why I\u2019m speaking out again.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a dangerous, dangerous man and women should be made aware he\u2019s here in Cork.<\/p>\n
\u201cI genuinely don\u2019t believe anybody changes that much.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have a history of doing something like this multiple times, you\u2019ll always be dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Sweeney\u2019s sentencing for the sexual assault of Stacey, Detective Sergeant Kieran O\u2019Sullivan 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.<\/p>\n
Courageous<\/p>\n
Similarly, Sweeney\u2019s victim was a vulnerable young woman.<\/p>\n
He was convicted of multiple counts of rape and jailed by Mr Justice Kevin O\u2019Higgins at the Central Criminal Court.<\/p>\n
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 \u201ca drinking den\u201d.<\/p>\n
The judge certified him as a sex offender and said \u201cthis was a vicious, unprovoked attack on a young girl who was particularly vulnerable\u201d.<\/p>\n
He noted the victim impact report \u201cshowed this is a remarkable young woman, very courageous, very brave\u201d.<\/p>\n
Crowd<\/p>\n
He said the report showed she had post-traumatic stress after the attack, but said \u201cshe has coped better than some with this serious crime\u201d. Mr Justice O\u2019Higgins said Sweeney had not expressed any remorse for inflicting an ordeal \u201cwhich was quite protracted\u201d.<\/p>\n
He imposed a sentence of nine years\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
![\"Francis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Sweeney.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Francis Sweeney leaving the Midlands<\/p>\n
Sweeney was one of a large crowd of men who arrived uninvited at the victim\u2019s home for a long drinking session.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Evidence<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
At the time, Sweeney had 45 previous convictions since 1991, including four for assault.<\/p>\n
Most of the others were for road traffic and public order offences.<\/p>\n
During his 2019 trial for the attack on Stacey, Judge Sean \u00d3 Donnabh\u00e1in noted Sweeney\u2019s latest victim was a \u201cyoung woman living on the outer rim of the margins of society.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrancis Sweeney,\u201d he said, \u201csexually assaulted her at a time when she was a recovering heroin addict.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was a very vulnerable person,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Dangerous<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In her victim impact statement, which was read out in court, Stacey said: \u201cFrancis Sweeney Ward, you did not have my consent but the truth always trumps lies.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have been found guilty, finally, after two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou won\u2019t be a monster that I was frightened I would see somewhere. You were just a person who broke the law and didn\u2019t escape the consequences of your actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Victim](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/3d1fa504-a9d0-4aa5-9f43-2760e3c0ca83.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Victim Stacey Curtin and sex attacker Francis Sweeney<\/p>\n
News in 90 Seconds – Monday, September 15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stacey Curtin was homeless and living in a tent when she was sexually assaulted by Francis Sweeney Ward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-23908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}