A man has been sentenced to seven years in prison for the attempted rape of a 17-year-old girl he met at a disco in Killarney on Christmas Eve, 2004.
24-year-old James Cronin from Kerry is already serving an eight-year sentence for the rape and false imprisonment of another young woman he also met outside a Killarney disco.
Mr Justice Kevin O'Higgins said Cronin continued to constitute a danger to society.
The judge told Cronin he had been found guilty of an unwarranted and very nasty assault on a young girl. If another man had not intervened he said, it might have been rape and not attempted rape.
He said the young woman had shown considerable courage but the assault had caused her huge distress and difficulties and there had not been any expression of remorse by Cronin.
Mr Justice O'Higgins said the offence was made all the more serious in the context of a previous conviction for rape. And he said a psychiatrist's report suggested he would continue to be a significant risk to the community.
Cronin's sentence begins in 2012, the earliest likely release date for the previous rape offence.
That rape was carried out seven weeks before the offence he was sentenced for today. Cronin is appealing the previous conviction.
