Costel Raducan let a group believe his unmarked car was a taxi, learned where a woman lived and waited outside until her friends had gone. He entered while she slept, forced her face into a pillow and raped her. Judge Paul Burns called the attack “the stuff of nightmares” and identified significant premeditation.
The calculated attack
On 3 May 2025, Raducan collected the woman and her friends as they tried to flag a taxi. He drove them home, declined payment and remained outside. After the last friend left shortly after 5am, he entered the house and stood over the sleeping woman. She ordered him out and ran upstairs. Raducan followed, raped her and attempted anal rape.
The woman locked the door after he left and used an Alexa device to contact a friend because she could not find her phone. A Sexual Assault Treatment Unit examination recovered semen that matched Raducan’s DNA.
A changing account
Raducan first denied interacting with the woman and said he had been at home. Gardaí traced his vehicle from the house to his address through extensive CCTV work. Confronted with DNA evidence, he claimed the woman had invited him inside and consented. The jury rejected that account and convicted him of burglary, rape and attempted anal rape.
On 18 June 2026 the court imposed twelve years with the final year suspended, backdated to 30 May 2025. Raducan had previous theft and road-traffic convictions, but reports do not give their number or dates.
Nationality and enforcement
Raducan is a Romanian national reported to have lived in Ireland since 2018. Romania is an EU member state and the record does not establish unlawful entry, an asylum claim or any pre-offence deportation opportunity. The prospective issue is whether public-security removal, EU notification and sex-offender supervision will be assessed before release.
Public-cost benchmark
The Irish Prison Service reported an average 2024 cost of €99,072 for an available staffed prison space. Applying that rate to the effective eleven-year term gives €1,089,792; an illustrative term after ordinary one-quarter remission gives €817,344. These are capacity benchmarks, not a personal invoice, and exclude Garda, forensic, court, legal-aid, victim-care, probation and monitoring costs.
Chronology
- 2018: Reported beginning of Irish residence.
- 3 May 2025: Offences committed.
- 30 May 2025: Entered custody.
- May 2026: Jury returned three guilty verdicts.
- 18 June 2026: Effective eleven-year sentence imposed.
Questions the State should answer
- Will public-security removal be considered before release?
- What EU cross-border notification will follow the conviction?
- What sex-offender monitoring and probation arrangements will apply?
- Did any earlier road-traffic offending raise passenger-safety concerns?
- What safeguards can reduce the danger from motorists impersonating taxis?