exclusive Predator jailed for raping sleeping gay woman after Pride

The 53-year-old will serve the next three years behind bars, followed by a further three years on supervised license.

McIlroy went on trial in February, denying charges of rape and sexual assault, only for the case to be dropped because of a technicality. At his retrial later the same month, he pleaded guilty to both offences.

The judge praised the victim for coming forward, telling her: “[It’s] probably the bravest thing you will ever do. You were the victim. The defendant is the only one who should carry guilt or shame about what he did.

“By coming forward, you now find yourself totally vindicated about what happened to you.

“It is the hope of this court that this sentencing exercise will mark a watershed in your progress from a victim to a survivor.’’

Antrim Crown Court was told the woman was given counselling after suffering a breakdown following the attack.

Before he struck, she was a “social butterfly”, but she is now “quite vulnerable, introverted, suffers from social anxiety and [is] on edge all of the time’’.

She said in her victim impact statement: “I have accepted that I have been a gay woman for over 20 years and I feel that this directly attributed to the abuse I have suffered at his hands.

“I felt totally violated. He knew this and still did what he did. I felt guilty for a long time due to the way it made me feel. I felt shame at having to tell my family and my new partner that this happened to me.”

The woman was attacked on a Saturday in August 2018. She and her friends were at a pub in the city centre when McIlroy, who she knew, joined them.

The group went back to a house with a carry-out of alcohol. In the early hours of the following morning, the victim became unwell and went to the bathroom before returning to her bedroom and lying down fully clothed.

“She later woke to find someone on top of her... and she was being raped,’’ a prosecution lawyer told the court.

“She managed to stop the rape, but the defendant pinned her down and put one hand on her chest and the other over her mouth, trying to keep her quiet and stopping her from talking. It was then that she saw it was Karl McIlroy.

“She said, ‘I was trying to push him off of me. I was trying to scream out, but I couldn’t’. She told him, ‘You know I am gay and I don’t want this’. The defendant then ran downstairs.’’

The court was told that after guests became aware of what had happened and McIlroy was told to leave the house, he replied: “This will come back on me.’’

After the victim contacted the police, an investigation was launched.

During interview, McIlroy, from Glengoland Gardens, denied the rape and claimed the sex was consensual.

But a prosecutor told the court: “This victim was vulnerable through alcohol and unable to give consent. He was aware of her sexuality and she was raped while she was sleeping.”

A defence lawyer said McIlroy accepted his conduct on the night was “totally inexcusable” and it was only after the first trial that he realised that he had committed the crimes.

The lawyer added his client’s guilty pleas “avoided the trauma of the victim having to go through a second trial”.

“He took advantage of a woman who was vulnerable by virtue of her extreme state of drunkenness,” they said.

“His initial denials at the first trial caused significant distress to his victim.”

As well being jailed, McIlroy was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely and made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for 10 years that also bans him from contacting his victim.