Here are the five men convicted of a range of sexual assaults on a teenage girl - who faced them down in court yesterday and said: “You have ruined so much of my life.”
Today, the Irish Mirror unmasks the monsters who defiled the victim six years ago when she was just 17 years old after the men had tried desperately to hide their face throughout the trial.
Pals Gabriel Gomes Da Rocha, Marcos Vinicius De Silva Umbelino, Eduardo Dias Ferreira Filho, Ethan Nikolaou and Conor Byrne will be sentenced on Thursday after hearing of the devastating effect the attacks have had on the victim’s life. The woman, now in her early 20s, was repeatedly sexually assaulted and raped after she got into a car with the thugs, thinking they were her friends, after a night out in the Midlands in the early hours of December 27, 2016.
She bravely took the stand yesterday in the Criminal Courts of Justice at the sentencing hearing of the case, explaining how she was once very sociable but also ambitious and driven, while she had goals to study pharmacy.
But after the rapes, she was a changed person, losing her self-worth and dropping out of two college courses as the case, which had been delayed twice, pended.
She also now suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and has suicidal thoughts.
The woman said: “I felt like spoiled goods. I was robbed of my right to be a dignified human being in my own mind. I hated my body. My own body was virtually taken from me.”
Coming to court and giving evidence had also really affected her, having to revisit everything that had happened to her which she described as “terrifying”.
But the victim explained that by giving evidence, her attackers would have to hear the truth of what happened.
She said: “They couldn’t hide behind anything. Sure, they could tell whoever they wanted that I was making it all up as I believe they have been doing for the past five years.
“But at the very least, deep down they had to sit there with their shame listening to what they did.
“They have torn me down to my core and this was my chance to expose them.”
In interviews with gardai, one of the men said the woman had ruined the last few days of his life.
In response to this, she said: “You have robbed me of so much and carry yourself as all of you do as if it was no big deal.
“The ironic thing is you have ruined the last few days of your life.
“If all of you did not defile me none of us would be here.
“You have ruined so much of my life it has spilled over in to the ones I love the most. How dare you?”
The woman then addressed Conor Byrne, who pleaded guilty to rape saying she will never be the same. She remarked on how he only pleaded guilty the night before she took the stand, adding that she did not feel anything after reading his letter of apology.
She said she will do her best to forgive him in time but had no reason to address the others by their names saying they had shown no remorse.
She added: “All of you made me feel I was not even a human being, but in my eyes you are sub-human.”
Nikolaou offered €30,000 in compensation after being convicted of two counts of sexual assault but she said she was left angry that he had not offered an apology.
The woman told how her life has never been the same before detailing how it’s affected her family and siblings.
The then-teenager was out in Tullamore, Co Offaly, on December 26, 2016, but became separated from her friends at the end of that night. After trying to get a taxi, she began walking towards a friend’s house when a car drove by with the five men inside and one shouting her name as he knew it from social media but did not know her personally.
She got into the vehicle, thinking it was friends giving her a lift, and the car went towards Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath.
The girl lay down across the men in the backseat of the car and there she was sexually assaulted before getting in the front with Da Rocha, who also molested her.
He, along with Ferreira Filho, Nikolaou and the driver Umbelino sexually assaulted her on the journey. When the car was then parked up in Kilbeggan at a remote location, all of the men got out before Da Rocha got back in and raped her. Umbelino then followed and raped her.
Byrne then raped her next before Nikolaou sexually assaulted her as she lay naked.
Da Rocha and Umbelino were convicted of rape while Byrne pleaded guilty to the offence.
The car then went back to Tullamore where the victim asked to leave the car but Da Rocha and Ferreira Filho stopped her.
Both were convicted of falsely imprisoning her at this point.
Da Rocha raped her again while Filho also did so. A jury found both men guilty of these offences. The girl was finally released from the car after the horrendous ordeal.
Umbelino recorded a video of Nikolau sexually assaulting the victim, the court heard yesterday, while Nikolaou told gardai he had made a video of Umbelino raping the girl.
Byrne also sent a Snapchat to Ferreira Filho.
Umbelino, 22, of Riverview, Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath, Ferreira Filho, 24, of Riverview, Kilbeggan, Da Rocha, also 24, of Mount Armstrong, Rahan, Tullamore, Co Offaly, Ethan Nikolaou, 23, of Brosna Park, Kilbeggan, and Conor Byrne, 24, of Ballybeg, Moate, Co Westmeath, were remanded in custody.
Justice Tara Burns will sentence the men on Thursday.
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