A Cavan man has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison for the sexual assault of an eldery woman.
He's also been charged with seriously assaulting another man with a shovel on a separate date.
31 year old Shane Smith, with addresses in Bailieborough and New Inns Ballyjamesduff, was before the Court on two separate cases.
One was for assaulting a man with a shovel in December 2017, and the other for sexual assaulting, assaulting and falsely imprisoning an elderly woman in April 2018.
Judge John Aylmer said the assault on the man was premeditated and unprovoked, and involved the victim being hit on the head with a shovel and slashed with a knife.
He described the sexual assault as being in the midrange of offences and took into consideration that it was committed on an elderly and vulnerable person, that there was forced entry and that there was substantial violence.
The assault and false imprisonment were said to be somewhat incidental based of the other offence but still merited sentence.
The sentences are to run concurrently, with the final nine months of the four and a half years handed down to be suspended.
In making his decision, Judge Alymer said compensation offered was a token of remorse, but it was something that had to be dealt with as a custodial matter.
