Michael Murray intends to ‘vigorously' appeal his 15 year sentence and his multiple convictions for rape, false imprisonment, theft and aggravated sexual assault.

His barrister Michael Lynam BL told the Central Criminal Court that the 42-year-old accepts he had a fair trial last summer but maintains his innocence.

Mr. Justice Patrick McCarthy has granted Murray further legal aid in the event of an appeal.

The 42-year-old took the stand to give evidence at his trial last July. In his defence he claimed his victim worked for him as an escort and had stolen money from him.

Murray with a former address at Killiney Oaks, Killiney, Co. Dublin claimed he had up to 35 staff working for him including up to 15 women in Dublin.

He claimed he and his victim went into a flat in Dublin in February 2010 to discuss the stolen money and ended up doing head shop drugs together.

He told the jury she agreed that she had taken €1,600 and said it was in her bank account but became hysterical and threatened to kill herself and her son, when he told her he was going to withdraw the money from her account.

Murray claimed that he disarmed her of a knife and left her 4-year-old son to walk alone around Smithfield at night out of concern that something worse might have happened to the boy.

He said that over the course of the next two days he met with two men who were involved with his escort agency in a number of pubs. He said that during this time he consumed up to three packets of mephedrone, a cocaine like substance and several bottles of wine.

The following evening, gardai arrested him at the Morrison Hotel in Dublin city centre. He said that he had concealed mephedrone on his person and continued to take the drug while in custody.

The court heard he made "a full confession" but later rejected it - telling his trial "It doesn't even make sense".

After a trial that lasted 22 days, a jury took under six hours to return unanimous guilty verdicts to two counts of sexual assault, two counts of rape with a make-up pen, attempted vaginal and anal rape, oral rape and aggravated sexual assault between February 12th and 13th, 2010.

He was also convicted of child abduction, threats to kill or cause serious harm, false imprisonment, stealing a bank card and stealing cash from two ATMs.

His victim, a foreign national, has left Dublin with her family and still fears the 'evil' Murray may track her down.