Rapist gets 16-year jail term

The rape took place at a mobile home

A County Tyrone man has been jailed for 16 years for raping a 91-year-old woman two years ago.

Eamon Foley, 41, from Dreenan Road in Castlederg showed no emotion as he was sentenced on Friday morning.

Foley had denied raping Mary-Anne McLaughlin at her isolated mobile home in Castlederg on 15 January 1999.

However, in February a jury of eight men and four women found him guilty.

The frail pensioner was found in her bloodstained bed by a neighbour and died a month after the attack.

Eamon Foley leaving a previous court hearing

A connection between her death and the rape could not be proven and therefore Foley was not charged in relation to her death.

A judge at Enniskillen Crown Court on Friday said it was a "vile, cruel and brutish attack".

Mr Justice Higgins told the court that in her twilight years Miss McLaughlin's virginity had been "cruelly and violently taken from her".

He said the rape had "contributed to and hastened" the end of her life.

'Significant risk'

The judge said the 16-year term reflected the fact the Foley remained unrepentant and a "significant risk" to women.

The case was the first in Northern Ireland in which the police used widespread DNA testing.

The police took samples from all males aged between 16 and 70 in the Castlederg area.

Elizabeth McLaughlin: Sister was "quiet, loving person"

The jury previously heard that the sample taken from the defendant had matched DNA material taken from the victim after she was raped.

Outside the court members of Miss McLaughlin's family said her death was a tragic loss.

Her sister Elizabeth said she had been a very "quiet, loving person".

"We miss her very much and I really think that if this hadn't happened, in spite of her age, she would still be alive today."

The RUC welcomed the sentence and said the victim's family should be relieved that Foley was now behind bars.