Robert Bily had been in Ireland for about five weeks when he entered a Tralee apartment complex and subjected a woman alone in her home to an opportunistic sexual and knife attack. The Slovakian national stabbed her nine times, locked her in a bathroom and took her phone. She escaped onto a roof despite a collapsed lung, liver injury and severe blood loss.

~5 weeksTime in Ireland before attack.
9Stab wounds.
11 yearsEffective custodial maximum.
~€1.09mGross prison-space benchmark.

The attack and escape

On 7 August 2022, the 25-year-old victim was watching television when Bily forced her towards her bed, demanded sex and a kiss, put a hand on her windpipe, punched her and stabbed her five times in the neck, twice in the shoulders and twice in the back. He took her phone and locked her in the bathroom.

With a collapsed lung, lacerated liver and severe blood loss, she crawled through a window onto a roof and screamed until she was seen. Gardaí used a patrol van to reach her. Bily made admissions to a cousin who brought him to a Garda station; after first giving a false account, he admitted the offences when shown CCTV.

Convictions and sentence

Bily pleaded guilty to assault causing harm and sexual assault against the woman, and burglary of another apartment. Judge Sinéad Behan set an 18-year headline, reduced it to 13 years for mitigation and suspended the final two. The sentence was backdated to detention.

The judge expressed concern that Bily was not engaging in specialist sexual-offending treatment because he denied the sexual aspect despite his plea. Public court reports reviewed for this file do not specify earlier convictions; that is an information gap, not proof of a clean record.

The immigration question

Bily was a Slovakian EU citizen. No source reviewed says he entered unlawfully, sought asylum or received State accommodation. No case-specific EU Removal Order has been reported. The precise accountability question is whether the State has assessed this convicted sex offender for EU removal and exclusion upon release.

Chronology

  • Approximately July 2022: Arrival in Ireland, based on court-reported five-week period.
  • 7 August 2022: Attack and rescue.
  • 10 August 2022: Bail refused and remand ordered.
  • 3 July 2023: Pleas and detailed evidence reported.
  • 22 November 2023: Thirteen years imposed, final two suspended.

Cost benchmark

Eleven years at the Irish Prison Service’s 2024 staffed-space average represents a gross benchmark of €1,089,792. A simple ordinary one-quarter-remission scenario is €817,344.

These are capacity comparisons, not an individual invoice or release forecast. They exclude policing, courts, emergency rescue, hospital treatment, victim support, supervision and any removal process.

Questions the State should answer

  1. Has Bily been assessed for an EU Removal Order and exclusion?
  2. Will that assessment finish before release?
  3. What mechanism connects prison, Garda sex-offender management and immigration authorities?
  4. What treatment is available while he continues to deny the sexual aspect?
  5. What was the full public cost of the rescue, treatment and prosecution?

Sources

Record checked: 25 July 2026. No source located reports an EU Removal Order or full prior-record schedule.