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Homeless addict offered shelter
HOPE has arrived for a young mother whose life has been devastated through heroin addiction and prostitution and who has been sleeping rough in a tent.
A Good Samaritan mother with young children heard of the woman's plight on RTE radio and has offered to let her stay in the mobile home her family own.
Twenty-six-year-old 'Louise' (not her real name) has been diagnosed with HIV and revealed how at one stage she and her partner, who is also HIV positive, had been pitching their tent in Phoenix Park just a few yards from the US Ambassador's residence.
When they were moved on by park-keepers, they eventually found a spot to erect the tent on the banks of the Grand Canal, close to Inchicore.
"They just look at us as bums. There has been bottles thrown at us. We don't really sleep - we might get two or three hours but as soon as it gets bright, we get up, bring down the tent and move on," she said.
So moving was her story that a number of people contacted the 'Liveline' radio programme offering help - the woman's partner has already been offered a residential place in one of the city's few treatment centres for drug addiction.
Louise told how her three-year-old daughter had been born before her current relationship and is being cared for by the child's father.
She also told how, in the past, she had turned to prostitution.
To pay for her drug addiction and to try and raise money for accommodation. Louise revealed how she had began drinking at the age of 13 and had turned to drugs a few years later, beginning with cannabis before progressing to ecstasy and then heroin.
Contacted by the Irish Independent last night, she spoke of her delight at the offer of a mobile home.
"I had just been hoping for somewhere to lay my head. I am overjoyed," she said.
There was further good news for the 26-year-old when the owner of a city-centre bed and breakfast offered her and her partner a night's accommodation.
Louise had earlier told RTE how one of the problems they had faced was finding a bed and breakfast willing to take in someone with a drugs dependency even though they would be in receipt of rent allowance benefit.
Eugene Moloney
Source: Irish Independent
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Judge strikes out 'the saddest case' of young woman addict
THE HORRIFIC details of a young woman's life were laid bare in court yesterday as a prosecution against her for allegedly engaging in prostitution while her mother and six-year-old sister were present was struck out.
In striking out the prosecution, the judge described the case as "one of the saddest I have dealt with".
The court heard that the woman, who was 17 at the time of the alleged offence, had come from an exceptionally dysfunctional background.
There was violence in the home, her mother was a heroin addict and she had to fend for herself from a young age. Throughout her childhood she had to look after a sibling and her mother.
At the age of 16 she had been taken to England by a 26-year-old man against her own and her family's wishes and he had injected her with heroin. Alhough she is now 19 and a recovering addict, her mother still pressures her to take heroin.
Defence solicitor Catherine Ghent told the court that in 2004 she wrote to the Minister for Health and Children to relay concerns that had been brought to her attention.
"She was 16 at the time. At that stage she had a boyfriend who was aged 26. She would have been below the age of consent. He had a very serious, malevolent influence over her.
Injected
"He brought her to his mother's house and injected her with heroin. His previous girlfriend died of a cocaine overdose.
"He then took her [the defendant] to England against her wishes and those of her mother. While travelling he asked her to use the identity of his deceased former girlfriend and she had difficulties getting back," Ms Ghent said.
"She was known to the authorities as far back as when she was aged three. It was brought to the health service's attention that her mother was drinking heavily and providing inadequate care. She was not deemed to be at high risk until 2002 despite the fact that she had been known of by the authorities for seven years. In those seven years she was subjected to very serious neglect."
After her arrest for solicitation, Ms Ghent said, the court heard that the Garda had sought assistance from social services, which have been working with her since. Her little sister was taken into care.
The young woman had been charged at the Dublin Children's Court for loitering in a public place with intent to solicit or importune another person for the purposes of prostitution.
Prosecuting garda Mathew McKenna of the Bridewell garda station applied to have the case against the young woman struck out.The court was told Garda McKenna had been instrumental in getting social services to intervene and to provide help to the young woman.
Ms Ghent commended Garda McKenna's role and handling of the case.
Trespassing
The young woman pleaded guilty yesterday to a trespassing offence. She had been squatting in an abandoned flat and her condition was described by a garda as "one of the worst I have ever seen".
Judge Angela Ni Chonduin said it was "one of the saddest cases I have dealt with since I came on the bench". She added that she was glad the defendant, who is now on methadone, had made such an improvement in her health and she remanded her on bail until June for a probation report.
Tom Tuite
Source: Irish Independent
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Tuesday 6th February 2007
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Man who raped prostitute is sent to jail for nine years
A MAN has received a nine-year jail sentence for raping a prostitute in a disused railway carriage at Heuston Station.
Martin Stafford (38), with an address at Cork Street in the Coombe area of Dublin, pleaded guilty to raping the then 28-year-old victim on March 10-11, 2005.
During the woman's ordeal, which lasted from 7.30pm until she succeeded in alerting gardai who released her at about 5.30am, she was threatened with a scissors or knife and with a hammer. Stafford's 23 previous convictions included a seven-year sentence in 1997 for false imprisonment of a contract cleaner whom he forced at knife point to perform a sexual act.
Mr Justice Paul Carney directed that Stafford be registered as a sex offender and undergo nine years post-release supervision.
Inspector Joseph Crowe told Paul Carroll, prosecuting, that the woman had had sex previously with Stafford in an old cabin at Heuston Station where he said he was working overnight. He paid her €100.
She went there again with him on the night of March 10-11, 2005 and this time he locked the door from the inside and told her she was getting "f**k all money".
Stafford then pushed her down on a bed and picked up a hammer, threatening to smash her face in. He then raped her twice.
Stafford then began drinking from cans he had bought. Insp Crowe said Stafford then ordered her to perform oral sex and again raped her while shouting at her to stop crying.
The frightened woman hid the hammer under a rail worker's jacket he had given her and when Stafford turned his head she struck him on the side of his head, but he grabbed the hammer from her while screaming that she was "in for it and was going to be punished".
He also held a scissors to her or knife to her throat.
Stafford fell asleep some 15 minutes later and after some time she used her phone to contact the gardai who told her they were on their way but she would have to make a noise. She turned a radio on loud and Stafford woke up.
Shortly after that the gardai arrived.
The court heard Stafford had come from a dysfunctional and grief-stricken background.
His mother had died of cancer when he was 14 and three of his siblings also died. He became a chronic abuser of drugs from about that time.
Ms Kennedy said that at the time of the offence Stafford was homeless and living in deprived conditions in the rail cabin. He was very remorseful for his actions and his guilty plea showed that he accepted full responsibility for his actions.
- Tomas Mac Ruairi
Source: Irish Independent
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