The woman was attacked on a Saturday in August 2018. I felt shame at having to tell my family and my new partner that this happened to me.” I felt guilty for a long time due to the way it made me feel. She said in her victim impact statement: “I have accepted that I have been a gay woman for over 20 years and I feel that this directly attributed to the abuse I have suffered at his hands. “It is the hope of this court that this sentencing exercise will mark a watershed in your progress from a victim to a survivor.’’Īntrim Crown Court was told the woman was given counselling after suffering a breakdown following the attack.īefore he struck, she was a “social butterfly”, but she is now “quite vulnerable, introverted, suffers from social anxiety and on edge all of the time’’. “By coming forward, you now find yourself totally vindicated about what happened to you. The defendant is the only one who should carry guilt or shame about what he did. The judge praised the victim for coming forward, telling her: “ probably the bravest thing you will ever do. At his retrial later the same month, he pleaded guilty to both offences. McIlroy went on trial in February, denying charges of rape and sexual assault, only for the case to be dropped because of a technicality. The 53-year-old will serve the next three years behind bars, followed by a further three years on supervised license.
