A former garda and another man have been jailed for drug and alcohol-fuelled assaults on two women, which culminated in one woman being bundled into a van and told she would be driven to the mountains and buried.
During the ordeal in April 2021, former garda Stephen Cooper (37) of Kingswood Heights, Tallaght, Co Dublin, forced a woman to take part in a “strip search” after he claimed she had stolen drugs from him, the court heard.
Cooper threatened the woman, saying: “I used to be garda, I know how to do this” and “if you weren’t a thief, I wouldn’t have to do this”.
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After forcing the woman to strip, Cooper then inserted his fingers into her body and repeatedly told her to shut up.
This assault took place at a house in Naas, Co Kildare at the tail end of a four-day drink and drug binge that had begun in a hotel elsewhere in the county.
Cooper, his accomplice Stephen McGrath (37) of Ashfield, Kilteel Road, Rathcoole, and a second woman then moved to a house in Ashfield, Co Dublin.
The two men began accusing the second woman of stealing cocaine from them. McGrath began a prolonged and vicious assault, kicking and punching the woman repeatedly and tearing clumps of her hair out.
Cooper pleaded guilty to assault causing harm of the first woman at a place in Naas.
He also pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to the second woman at Rathcoole, making a threat to kill her and to production of an article capable of inflicting harm.
McGrath pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to the second woman and production of a weapon at Ashfield. He also admitted sexually assaulting her and assault causing harm to her at locations in Tallaght, Co Dublin.
Judge Martin Nolan imposed a three-year prison sentence on Cooper for this assault and another three-year prison term for the threats against the second woman, to run consecutively.
Judge Nolan then imposed an eight-year sentence on McGrath, made up of four-and-a-half years for the sexual assault and three-and-a-half years for the assault causing harm.
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