The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
By Jessica Magee and Emer Connolly A Kilmihil man who raped a Brazilian woman he had asked to clean his house has been sentenced to seven and a half years, after a judge said he couldn’t “buy himself out” of a custodial sentence. Father-of-four Thomas Egan (47), a developer, of Cahermurphy, Kilmihill, paid over €10,000 in court to be forwarded to his victim, who has since returned to Brazil. Mr Justice Barry White suspended the final three and a half years of the sentence, noting that Egan had a previous “unblemished record” apart from a minor road traffic offence. Egan was convicted last May by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of raping the 23 year-old woman at a house in Tipperary on July 5, 2010. He had denied the charge. Egan admitted having sex with the woman, but told gardaí it was consensual and that she had not shown any fear. During the trial, Seán Gillane SC prosecuting, …
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