A man who raped a Spanish national he had been in a relationship with after she told him she was too sore to have sex has been jailed for four years.Youssef Shehata (23), of Tallaght Cross West, Dublin 24, was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury of one charge of rape in her Dublin apartment on September 16th, 2022. Detective Sergeant Lucy Wood said the then 24-year-old Spanish native met Shehata in the cafe he worked at in Dublin. She gave him her number on the back of a sugar sachet and they began messaging each other. They met up and began a sexual relationship.Shehata was a 19-year-old engineering student at the time. The victim indicated that while she is happy for Shehata to be named in reporting of the case, she does not wish to be named herself.Senior counsel Paul Carroll, prosecuting, told the court the woman had a medical difficulty at the time for which she had been prescribed medication. Det Sgt Wood said on the day of the rape, Shehata and the woman had consensual sex in her Dublin apartment, but she was in pain afterwards. She later told gardaí that Shehata offered to give her a massage, and while she consented to that, he began to have sex with her. She told him she was still in pain and told him “no” several times, but Shehata did not stop. Carroll said the woman said Shehata had afterwards apologised to her, kissed her on the forehead and left to catch a Luas.He later claimed there was some confusion as to whether he had consent to have sex with the woman for the second time. He was arrested after the woman reported the incident to gardaí, but he made no admissions.A victim impact statement read into the record stated the woman had come to Ireland in hopes of setting up a new life and in an effort to improve her English. She said there were less opportunities for work in Spain in her chosen field. She has since returned to Spain and was not present in court for the sentence hearing.“Before the rape I was happy, felt free and fulfilled,” she said. She said that, after the rape, “I felt that part of my identity was taken from me”.She said in the days afterwards she had tried to continue to live in Dublin, but could not, and returned to Spain.She said she has since suffered many anxiety attacks and nightmares and was afraid of contracting a sexual transmitted disease, as Shehata did not use a condom.“I want to tell you something, I cannot forgive you because you destroyed my dreams – I hated you and wished you suffer,” the woman continued in her statement before she added, “I realised that you do not deserve one more second of my suffering.”She said she hopes Shehata’s time in custody makes him reflect and think of what he did.“I am doing this for me and all women, that never again in your life you rape a woman,” she concluded.Mr Justice Paul Burns said the woman had clearly told the man she did not want to have sex with him on the second occasion, but that he “cynically and selfishly” ignored her and as a result her “sense of self and wellbeing has been significantly impacted”. Burns said a headline sentence of seven years was justified in the case.The judge accepted that Shehata was “immature and possibly naive” at the time in relation to his emotional maturity. “Unfortunately, maturity does not switch on automatically on an 18th birthday,” he said. He acknowledged that Shehata came from a supportive, hardworking family who had provided him and his siblings with a stable and loving home.He further acknowledged Shehata had a bright future ahead of him at the time, having been a hard-working engineering student.He imposed a sentence of five years in prison and suspended the final year on strict conditions, including that Shehata engage with the Probation Service for three years upon his release.