By Jonathan McCambridge

Copyright newsletter

Sophie (not her real name), 24, was subjected to a prolonged physical and sexual assault in Belfast in 2021 when she was a student, which included being bitten multiple times. Fearghall Joseph Mulgrew of Mullaghmoyle Road, Stewartstown, admitted sexual assault by penetration and five counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm at Belfast Crown Court last year. Mulgrew, who was 25 when he was sentenced last April, was given a 22-month sentence, eight in custody. He will be on the sex offenders register for 10 years. Sophie told the PA news agency that she had met Mulgrew on the dating site Tinder when they were both students and they had developed a sexual relationship. On March 14 2021 Mulgrew arranged to meet her at his accommodation after he had been at a party. Sophie said he had told her “he wanted to do it his way” and she had agreed because she wanted him to like her. She said as soon as she arrived she knew something was different. “He was very aggressive,” she said. “Straight away when we got into his bedroom, he slapped me across the face.” Sophie said a safe word was agreed to signal that he should stop, but she soon realised it was “just a cover”. She said: “We engaged in sex and he would do stuff. He started to bite my face and he went down the side of my jaw and it was quite painful. “He left marks. He bit my nose. I’d say the (safe) word and he bit my mouth so I literally couldn’t say anything. “I remember that’s when I started crying because it was painful and then from that point on there were areas where I was just telling him: ‘I don’t like that.’ “I remember saying to him repeatedly, ‘I don’t like the biting, that is not what I want to do.’ “And he didn’t stop the biting, he bit me on my shoulder, on my stomach, and then in my private area. “He choked me, he pulled my hair to be rough. I remember a bit of hair had come out, and my whole neck cracked when he did it.” Sophie said she kept hoping that Mulgrew would realise she was not enjoying the experience and would stop. She said: “I had gone to the bathroom at one point and I just looked like he had ravaged me, like, beaten me up. “I was black from one side of my neck to the other, my face was covered in bites, l had been crying. “And I remember saying to him ‘look what you’ve done’ and he laughed. “Then he just turned me around and carried on.” Sophie added: “I had gone down on him and he held my head down until I threw up and I said: ‘Please don’t hold my head down.’ He did it again. “And then he went down on me and he bit me there to the point where I had to kick him in his shoulder and collar bone to get him off. “And he just laughed, he found the whole thing funny. “And it was really clear that it just didn’t matter how I felt, he was enjoying himself.” Sophie said the ordeal continued when he sexually assaulted her. She said: “It was just so painful. It felt like he was punching me full force, I felt like he was connecting with the actual bones in my hips, he was so painful. “I was saying to him: ‘Stop now’, and he was saying: ‘It’s fine, it’s fine.’ “In the end he got annoyed because I was saying that he was hurting me. He turned over and went to sleep.” Sophie said she went to the kitchen where she called a friend who gave her money to get a taxi home. She said: “I was in a complete state of shock, I didn’t even want to acknowledge what had happened. “I had gone to the hospital, I’ve been to the Rowan Centre (a sexual assault referral centre), and had photos and swabs taken. “But but I still had the mentality of: ‘That’s not what it was.'” Sophie said Mulgrew continued to contact her, asking “if he should be worried that I was going to tell the police”. She said: “And I was just in the mindset of: I like this guy, and I don’t want him to dislike me. I look back on that now and I just think it was crazy.” Sophie added: “I was in a really low place. It took me to be in a dark place. “I’m paying for the consequences of it. My relationships struggled, I’m not able to really deal with the sexual side of a relationship. “I struggle with body image, and I struggle with my mental health. “I worked myself into such a dark place, I didn’t want to live. I was barely getting through the day.” Almost a year after the assault, Sophie decided to contact the police. She said: “I was unsure of how it would go. “Then the detective reached out to me, explained what he was going to be doing, and he was very transparent about the whole thing and what would be expected of me. “Not once did I feel like he was looking for holes in my story or he was trying to paint me like I did something wrong. “I felt really supported the whole way through.” Sophie said her life turned around again when she saw Mulgrew plead guilty in court. She said: “I felt like I had came out of it, a weight off my shoulders. “It wasn’t something I was just carrying around on my own anymore “I’m still dealing with the consequences of it, but I’m learning, and I think it’s made such a difference.” She said her message to other women who have been assaulted is that “you are going to be believed” if you report it. Sophie said: “I have experienced what it is like to have your rights stripped away from you. “Too many men in our society have blurred lines of consent and a misogynistic view on life. “I, and so many other young women, have suffered because of this. “I am standing up to say it is not right and the only way to put a stop to it is to educate men and boys and for women like me to feel supported enough to report.”