A 42-year-old man has been convicted of raping his wife and threatening to kill her after she told him their marriage was over.
He admitted attacking her with a hammer at the beginning of his trial and was also found guilty of threatening to seriously hurt her.
When the jury returned with its unanimous guilty verdict this afternoon, the man became only the third person to be convicted for a marital rape since it became a crime in Ireland in 1990.
The court heard he forced her to have sex with him after threatening her with a large kitchen knife at their Dublin home on May 25th 2014.
She said their marriage ran into difficulties following the birth of their son and theyÂ’d fought over her wish to separate.
She described being ordered upstairs and said she only went through with it because she was genuinely concerned heÂ’d kill her.
Her parents overheard him screaming “you’re dead” at their daughter during a phone call at their home after she secured a restraining order the following day.
The jury was unable to reach verdicts in relation to another allegation of making a threat to cause serious harm and an alleged head butt.
His wife will be given the opportunity to deliver a victim impact statement at his sentence hearing, which is due to take place in a few weeks.
Our Courts Correspondent Frank Greaney reports:
