This report contains details of a sexual nature that some readers may find distressing.

A Cork man has been jailed for 15 years for raping a sleeping woman after climbing in her bedroom window in her home in Tralee, County Kerry.

Edmund O’Sullivan, of no fixed abode, was described by the survivor of the attack as a “danger to society”.

On the morning of March 14th last year, the woman awoke in her ground floor apartment to find a man on top of her with a scissors to her throat.

Edmund O’Sullivan had scaled a gate and entered her bedroom through a window that was slightly open.

He threatened to kill her if she didn’t have sex with him, and when she cried out for help, he started stabbing her in the face, head and arm.

To survive, the woman said she just stopped resisting and gave in to his demands.

O’Sullivan fled afterwards, but he was arrested a few hours later.

The court heard that just ten days beforehand, he had been released from prison for stabbing another woman in her apartment two years earlier.

Noting the “dangerous and escalating” nature of his offending, the judge directed he be closely monitored for eight years after he serves his fifteen-year sentence.

If you have been impacted by rape or sexual assault you can contact the Rape Crisis Centre 24-Hour National Helpline on 1800 77 8888.

A Garda station. Image: Alamy