A 51-year-old Romanian man who sexually assaulted three women at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda has been sentenced to three years and eight months in prison.
Mihai Csiki, with an address in Germany, was sentenced before Drogheda Circuit Court.
He had pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault, with two other counts of sexual assault taken into consideration.
The court heard that the offending took place over a two-day period in March 2022, and that two of the victims were patients in the hospital at the time.
Csiki was also a patient at the hospital at the time. He had presented with heart palpitations following a 12-hour shift in a meat factory.
The court heard he had drank a naggin of brandy on the way to the hospital to warm up.
The three female victims were aged in their 60s and 70s.
In one case, Csiki entered the room of a woman in her mid-70s and pulled the curtain around her bed.
He lifted her pyjama top and touched her bare breast, before pulling down her pyjama bottoms and touching her under her clothing.
The court heard that the woman was unable to scream.
The man then stopped what he was doing and mumbled something in a foreign language.
The court heard that the woman's mind and body went blank.
She did not make any report but a health care assistant later noticed her distress.
The same evening, Csiki returned to her room and blew her a kiss.
The woman pressed the call bell to call staff and made a full disclosure the following morning and he was identified on CCTV.
Another patient aged in her late 60s met Csiki when she was returning to her room in the hospital.
At first, the woman mistook him for a physiotherapist. He rubbed her chest and touched her outside her clothing over her chest and crotch area.
Csiki also assaulted another woman in her early 60s that he met in the hospital.
She pushed him away after he grabbed her hand, but as she pulled back, became pinned against a wall. The man then touched her over her clothing before moving his head to her crotch area and said and made rude gestures.
The court heard that after he was arrested, he went to Germany and was later extradited back to Ireland.
He has been in custody since April 2025.
Csiki has no previous convictions in this jurisdiction, however the court heard he has a previous conviction for rape, theft and aggravated theft.
He pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault in this case last November.
Judge Sinéad McMullan said that while it came at a late enough date, it was viewed as a plea of high value, "given the nature of the vulnerable victims in the case".
She said that Csiki was a 51-year-old man, a father of five children, whose first wife had died and he had since remarried.
He also had a young child with medical issues and has a number of heart issues himself.
Outlining the background to the case, Judge McMullan said that he was of a Romany background, that he was not a man of any means at all, and had come here to work and send money back to his family.
Judge McMullan said that the first woman was a vulnerable person aged in her mid 70s.
She said the two other incidents were more minor, but showed a pattern of offending.
She took account of mitigating factors, including his guilty plea, saying this meant that the three women did not have to give evidence.
The judge said that she heard his apology in court today and previously received a letter of apology, but that said he displayed limited insight and remorse.
She also took account of the fact that he has a child who is ill, his own childhood adversity and the difficulties someone like him with little or no English would have serving time in prison here.
She imposed a sentence of three years and eight months, backdated to 30 April 2025.
Judge McMullan wished the three victims in the case well.
