Nursing home worker Emmanuel Adeniji has been convicted of raping a 73-year-old Alzheimer’s patient in her room during the coronavirus lockdown.
52-year-old Adeniji, of Royal Canal Court, Kilcock, County Kildare, described as a “trained healthcare professional who has worked in healthcare for 15 years” with no previous convictions by Irish public broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), attacked the pensioner in her room at 3 a.m. on April 3rd.
She was found in a distressed state the following day by staff. She told investigators she was always “locked in because of the virus” and that her attacker had assaulted her in silence and left her very sore.
Adeniji was arrested 11 days later after the Gardaí (Guards), Ireland’s police force, analysed CCTV, and while he initially denied culpability he ultimately plead guilty in light of DNA evidence.
Justice Paul McDermott described Adeniji’s crime — with great understatement — as “an egregious breach of trust by a qualified and experienced healthcare worker”.
McDermott added that the rape had had a “devastating” impact on the victim, who experienced “depression, suicidal thoughts, nightmares and a lack of safety” following attack, and that his lack of “lack of real remorse” was “to ordinary, decent people, simply grossly wrong”.
However, the judge ultimately handed down a relatively meagre sentence of just11 years, with the last year suspended.
The victim’s family said they could “never forget how [Adeniji] had single-handedly destroyed our Mam’s life”, with her daughter saying the situation was made much worse by the fact that the anti-coronavirus regulations meant they were unable to hug or otherwise physically comfort her following her ordeal.
“We always said we will dread the day she loses her memory but now one day we hope she wakes up and doesn’t remember,” her daughter told the court.
Emmanuel Adeniji has been described as a Nigerian by some online outlets, but public broadcasters such as RTÉ and the BBC make no reference to his nationality.
Breitbart London has contacted the Gardaí in an attempt to clarify his background.
Breitbart London also contacted the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), which claimed it does not comment on individual cases, and the court, which claimed they “do not keep a record on our database of nationality of any defendant [sic]”.
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