A violent offender who grabbed and raped a woman with a mild intellectual disability on a side-street and then falsely imprisoned her in his home, raping her twice more, was given an extraordinarily lenient sentence because he can't speak English, the State has argued at the Court of Appeal today.
Costel Pirvu (39) formerly of Kilreekill, Loughrea, Co Galway, was found guilty of three counts of rape and one of false imprisonment after a nine-day trial at the Central Criminal Court last year. He had pleaded not guilty on all counts and was jailed for six and a half years.
At the trial, Detective Garda Adrian Fehily told Éilis Brennan SC, prosecuting, that the offence took place at a town in the west of Ireland in the early hours of February 4, 2018.
