LETTERKENNY, CO DONEGAL — A factory worker who choked and sexually assaulted a young woman down a dark alleyway has been jailed for six years.
Mohamed Hallam, 28, an Algerian national living in Donegal since 2023, attacked the woman after meeting her at a nightclub in Letterkenny on 20 October 2024. He was convicted at the Central Criminal Court in January of sexual assault, assault causing harm and non-fatal strangulation, having pleaded not guilty.
Judge David Keane described the offences as "violent predatory offences carried out by the convicted man for his own sexual gratification." He cited the "grave harm" done to the victim and her vulnerability — she was "heavily intoxicated" — as aggravating factors.
Sentence
Headline sentence: Eight years for sexual assault and non-fatal strangulation; six years for assault causing harm
Reduced by one year for mitigating factors including acceptance of the jury verdict and lack of prior offending
Concurrent sentences, backdated to 24 October 2024
Final year suspended on conditions including keeping the peace and good behaviour
Two years post-release supervision with mandatory psychological counselling and sex offender treatment
The Attack
The victim, in her early 20s, had consumed 10 drinks during the night. CCTV shows her staggering outside the nightclub with Hallam, who pulled her into an alleyway. Around half an hour later, she emerged and called a friend, hysterical, saying she had been strangled.
Her friends found her with ripped jeans, her top pulled up, and bruises across her chest, stomach, arms and legs. She was short of breath with blue lips. A stomach injury may have been a bite mark.
DNA evidence confirmed blood on Hallam's clothing matched the victim, and semen on her clothing matched his. On arrest, he told gardaí, "she's a liar" and made no comment in interviews.
Victim Impact
Reading her own statement, the woman described finding herself on "cold concrete in a cold dark alleyway" being forcefully kissed and touched without consent, pinned down and unable to breathe. She called the recovery process "painful, invasive and emotionally challenging," and said handing her phone to gardaí and having injury photos shown in court made her feel "exposed and vulnerable."
Defence
Counsel Seamus Costelloe said Hallam wished to offer a "sincere apology" and considered his actions a "gross lapse of judgment." However, a Probation Service report found Hallam "remains adamant" the encounter was consensual — something the judge noted was "completely at odds" with his legal position.