Home / Case Files / Bogdan Timorte
Reporter competition twenty-five entrant

Bogdan Timorte: Gardaí pulled him from his rape victim

A resident heard a woman screaming in a Dublin laneway and called Gardaí. When officers arrived, the violent sexual attack was still under way: they found Romanian national Bogdan Timorte on top of the stranger and had to pull him off her.

Published 28 July 2026 · Remigration Ireland case ledger
Oral rapeFinal guilty plea
Sexual assaultFinal guilty plea
8 yearsActive term imposed
€792kConditional illustration

Bogdan Timorte targeted a woman he did not know as she walked alone after a night out in Dublin. The attack ended only because her screams were heard, a resident raised the alarm and Gardaí intervened while it was continuing.

A stranger followed into a dead-end lane

Shortly after 3.15am on 9 October 2017, CCTV recorded Timorte meeting the intoxicated woman on Parnell Street. He put an arm around her, spoke to her and went with her into a cul-de-sac laneway.

The woman later remembered being in a struggle with a man on top of her. She said he was angry and out of control, that he hurt and choked her, and that she feared for her life. She sustained injuries to her head, neck and shoulders and bruising to her knees and body.

The attack was recorded and interrupted

A nearby resident heard screams and used a phone to record what was happening. Too afraid to approach Timorte, the witness contacted Gardaí instead. The court heard that the report was made at about 3.35am and officers reached the scene approximately 15 minutes later.

The attack was still in progress. A detective told the court that Timorte had his trousers down and was on top of the woman when Gardaí arrived. Officers had to physically remove him from her. He was arrested at the scene but was initially too intoxicated to be interviewed.

The final criminal outcome

Timorte pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to oral rape and sexual assault of the woman. These are the adjudicated offences; the account above reflects the evidence presented at sentencing.

On 5 June 2019, Mr Justice Michael White set a 12-year headline sentence. After mitigation, including the guilty plea and Timorte's previous good character, the judge reduced it to nine years and suspended the final year on condition that he engage in an assessment for sex-offender treatment. That left an eight-year active term, backdated to 9 October 2017 because Timorte had remained in custody since the attack.

The located national and court reporting identifies no previous convictions. Searches reviewed for this file did not locate a published appeal outcome or later sentence variation; that is a limit of the public record reviewed, not proof that no procedural application was ever made.

The damage left with the victim

In her victim-impact statement, the woman said the attack changed her life. She no longer felt safe at night, withdrew from socialising and suffered depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She also described the physical effects of preventive medication for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections while awaiting test results.

Her statement rejected any suggestion that the attack should define her. The judge praised her courage and recognised the long-term impact of the violent sexual offences.

Case chronology

A transparent cost illustration

The official 2024 benchmark was €99,072 per available, staffed prison space per year. Applying that later system-wide figure to the eight-year active term imposed produces a conditional capacity-cost illustration of €792,576.

This is not an invoice for Timorte's case and is not a claim about marginal expenditure. The sentence was backdated to include pre-sentence custody, and actual time held may differ because of remission, release decisions and other operational factors. The illustration applies a 2024 benchmark across the nominal active term; it does not reconstruct historical annual costs. It excludes Garda investigation, prosecution, courts, legal aid, healthcare and victim-support costs.

What the record establishes about origin and status

RTÉ, The Irish Times, the Irish Examiner and TheJournal.ie identify Timorte as Romanian or originally from Romania. The Irish Times reported that he had worked abroad from 2006, first in Italy and then elsewhere, before coming to Ireland. The reports do not provide a precise Irish arrival date.

No reviewed source identifies him as an asylum applicant or illegal entrant, or records a deportation or removal order. His Romanian origin and status as a foreign national are sourced facts; claims beyond them would not be.

Sources