Galway hotel manager sentenced to six years for raping woman

A former hotel manager has been sentenced to six years for raping a woman. According to The Irish Times, Lee Wainright was working at the Corralea Court Hotel in Tuam when he and the woman in question attended a function there in 2014. It is believed that Wainright asked the woman, aged in her early twenties, to sit beside him. She explained that she could not find her friend, with whom she was meant to share a room, and Wainright, aged 40, said he could arrange a room and would escort her to it. While he was using the bathroom, she fell asleep with her clothes on. She woke up to him having sex with her and pushed him off, before going back to sleep. The next morning, she thought she had imagined it but then contacted Gardaí after realising she had been raped. At first, Wainright denied he had raped her but when his DNA was found on the woman's body, he admitted what had happened. He pleaded guilty to rape and Mr Justice Paul Butler sentenced him to six years, with the final two years suspended. The victim read a statement aloud to court where she said she "couldn't get the filth of him" of her no matter how many times she washed herself. She also said how her youth and "naivety" allowed her to trust a man who was considerably older than her. One of her quotes read:

“He’s the one with the problem, not me. “His actions that night were despicable and deplorable. I just hope he’s never allowed to do what he did to me again".

A letter of apology from Wainright to the woman was read by his counsel.