A NURSE who was raped by a doctor in Limerick faced her abuser in court and told him: “I got justice.”
Louay Kila (31), with an address at Cois Luachra, Dooradoyle, Limerick, who worked as a registrar doctor at the University Hospital Limerick (UHL) at the time, was convicted at the Central Criminal Court, sitting in Limerick, of the rape and sexual assault of the victim on March 2, 2024.
Kila, a native of Morocco, contested the rape and sex assault charges at his four-day trial. However, a jury found him guilty of both offences by unanimous decision after four hours of deliberations.
The court consented to the woman’s wishes to retain her legal right to anonymity but that Kila be identified.
The nurse faced Kila at his sentencing hearing, reading her own victim impact statement in court, which said: “To my rapist, I stood up and I am holding you accountable for your actions and I got justice.”
“I wasn’t going to let you abuse me further by letting you get away with it. I stand here on behalf of any woman who has been raped or sexually assaulted and was too afraid to report it.”
Looking at Kila, who buried his head in his knees, the nurse said: “We are people, we are not objects, and we deserve to be treated as such — No means no.”
The court heard Kila and the nurse both worked at UHL and encountered one another as part of a larger group on a night out in the city.
Later, at an apartment, where they and friends went, Kila tried to force the victim to kiss him by holding her jaw open. She rebuked him and told him to leave her alone, the court heard.
Afterwards, a photograph of Kila kissing the victim on her cheek while she was asleep on a couch at the apartment was shared on a Snapchat account, the court was told.
Later on in the night, the victim said she was “in shock” when she awoke to find Kila penetrating her with his penis and fingers.
After Kila left the apartment, the nurse told her friends: “I just kept telling him to stop.”
Kila was arrested 20 days after the assaults.
The court heard he sent the victim a message while she was attending a sexual assault treatment unit a day after the rape, telling her “I didn’t mean to upset you” and that her “wellbeing” was “important” to him.
Kila replied “no comment” to questions about the rape and sexual assault when interviewed by Gardaí under caution.
Two months after the rape, Kila provided Gardaí with a prepared written statement, claiming he and the victim engaged in “consensual” kissing and digital penetration on the night.
The nurse told the court the horrifying ordeal affected “my health, my livelihood, my family life, my potential relationships, and my sense of self” and she was “diagnosed with PTSD and put on anti-depressants just to cope with the trauma”.
She said that she “couldn’t return to work” due to the trauma, and felt “physically sick” walking back into the hospital where Kila continued working for a time.
The nurse said the HSE offered her a transfer to a different healthcare setting “and I felt I had no option other than to take this as Louay was still working as a doctor in UHL”.
“I also feared for the patients of UHL. I knew that I had gotten out of the hospital but what about those who were left behind?”
“I feared something similar could happen to someone else and knew that I would be taking on the guilt of not having done enough if it did. I tried and the Gardaí tried to consult UHL but to no avail,” said the nurse.
The nurse concluded: “I am a strong woman, I will heal from this, and I will be a stronger more resilient version of myself. I will never let that man take that away from me.”
Kila’s barrister, Liam Carroll, said his client consented to being suspended from the register of doctors in Ireland in March 2025, 12 months after he raped the nurse.
“This has had catastrophic consequences for his career,” said Mr Carroll. “He could not work as a doctor afterwards, he has been in a form of purgatory, frozen in time, a non-national with no family here, and prison will be difficult for him.”
“He has suffered psychologically is receiving medication. He has no previous convictions, he has not come to Garda attention since,” added Mr Carroll.
Judge Sean Gillane commended the nurse and said he would carefully consider her victim impact statement. He adjourned sentencing and remanded Kila in custody to appear for sentence on March 13.
– Court Reporting Scheme