RTÉ journalist found guilty of sexually assaulting woman as she slept

Think you're past the point of respecting consent when you're fiddling with someone in their sleep.

And you seem to be ignoring that fact she was able to sleep beside this man who traumatised her so much, then get into his car for a lift home , meet up with him a few days later and wait a year to report .

No need to make a snide comment on peoples relationships just because they have a difference of opinion to you

She told him that sex was off the table and that's when they stopped fooling around and went to sleep, if he had of just left it there this would be a very different story.

Instead he sexually assaulted her while she was asleep.

Come on seriously she went told him to stop that she was asleep, then went back asleep

Survival instinct would kick in if you thought you were in danger. you would at least have left the uncomfortable situation . I will give her the reporting of said assault for the year but im not buying the going back asleep and then getting lift home with him

How do you know they're still happy with it after they fall asleep? How do you revoke consent when you're asleep?

They only out I can see here is if he genuinely didn't know she'd fallen asleep.

Totally irrelevant to what I said

No rules but basic human instinct

"The woman said she went back to sleep. Later that night he drove her home and over the following days she texted the defendant expressing annoyance at what had happened."

A few days later she seems to have some feelings towards what happened. Annoyance

I said there is need for greater discussion of consent. Thst goes for men and women.

The point of failure in this case wasn't anything she did. It was the guy sexually assaultingbher while she was asleep.

Maybe you think she should have been explicit that consent is withdrawn when she's asleep, but thats the kindnof thing that should be known and should be discussed so everyone knows thst you can't consent when you're asleep.

Would you say you agree that you can't consent when you're asleep?

Yes. When she was awake and could give consent and withdraw consent. It became not OK when she dozed off because she could no longer give/withdraw consent while asleep. So the assault took place specifically in the time when she was asleep, as far as I know. Are we in agreement on that much?

I'm at a disadvantage because I don't pretend to know what's in her mind. I can only go by the evidence we have. She certainly says she was traumatised, the law views what happened to her as sexual assault. You're saying you don't know her mind, but I think if push comes to shove, you don't believe her claims. Where I just don't know. The law knows whether the behaviour constitutes a sexual assault though.

I've said I don't assume he's necessarily a bad person, but if he didn't think he was committing a sexual assault, then he was mistaken about the law and consent. That's a tragedy. If he jad known more about consent, he could have woken her up the normal way you wake someone up, and tasked if she was on for the ride in the normal way and everything would have been fine. Tragic for both him and her, assuming he didn't intend to cause harm and was just mistaken -as many people in this thread also seem to be mistaken.

Actually, I'd find it more difficult to believe that she went through all this out of spite and revenge and that she was not that traumatized at all.

It's more likely that she did this out of a genuine feeling of it needing to be done because of what she experienced. That is why I can sympathize with both parties here.

Other scenario is that she is touched and unstable and did it for whatever reason was in her head.

One other point to touch on: You say had he waited until awake and had they engaged in intercourse, all would be fine. We cant know this. Plenty examples of females making sexual assault allegations in these situations; real he said she said scenarios.

Maybe this man was damned if he did and damned if he didn't

Considering your selective quotation marks - the irony in your post is off the scale.

The full summary of the VIS.

In her victim impact statement, the woman said she wanted to document the impact sexual violence had on her. She said she was sexually violated while sleeping. "This convicted man, used sexual violence as a method of violence towards me," she told the court. She said he had violated her body, her mind, her sense of self and her sense of security in the world. It had impacted, she said, on every facet of her life.

The woman said the night of the assault was the last night she would ever go to sleep believing she was safe and the thought someone would sexually violate her while sleeping was beyond comprehension. She said the stress and fear did not end when the attack ended and it had replayed again and again.

In the aftermath, she said she felt grief and distress beyond explanation and felt totally disconnected from reality. The woman said relationships with her family had become strained. She said she had lost her social circle and many friends and had not been able to progress in her career. She described to the court, becoming depressed and suicidal and making an attempt on her life.

The woman said she believed if society supported victims better, she would not have had to deal with such devastating losses. The only person responsible for the relationships and friendships she had lost was Ó Leidhin she said and yet she had been shamed and blamed because of what he did to her.

She said she had to pay for counselling sessions and doctor's appointments.

The woman said it had taken three years from the time she reported the assault before the trial took place. This was completely unacceptable she said and forced victims of sexual violence to be stuck in a state of trauma. Giving evidence and being cross examined was unbelievably distressing and she felt she was going to have a heart attack.

She said that giving her victim impact statement did not put an end to the trauma for her, and she would have to deal with it for the rest of her life. She said she would not forget it but she would not let it define her. She said she would leave behind everything unfounded and untruthful said to her in court, as well as all her pain, guilt, silence and shame, with the sexual offender who was responsible for it all.