Edward Piotrowski (45), with an address at Clonmullen Hall, Edenderry, raped the woman after tying her boyfriend up with rope and duct tape and told the woman, during the two and half hour ordeal, that he was going to kill her, her partner and his daughter.

Gardai discovered that Mr Piotrowski had made two attempts to recruit people to carry out particular actions against the woman and her boyfriend while he was in custody. Inspector Pat Murray said this was given in evidence during a bail application Mr Piotrowski had made to the High Court.

Insp Murray said the couple had been through a terrible ordeal and Gardai still had measures in place to ensure their safety. He said Mr Justice Peter Charleton had commented on both victims courage and emotional intelligence throughout the trial.

Mr Piotrowski told his victim he had previously stolen her keys and copied them so he could gain access to the house.

Mr Justice Charleton described the attack on the couple, in which she was sexually assaulted in front of her boyfriend before she was taken to another room and raped and forced to perform oral sex, as the "most grievous sexual assault I have ever come across in my career".

He registered Piotrowski as a sex offender but when asked to consider post-release supervision by Fergal Foley BL, prosecuting, he said he did not intend for the former army officer to ever be released.

He described the offence as one that "beggars belief, astonishing and horrible". He said the victim impact reports, which were not read out in court, made harrowing reading and proved the long lasting affects Piotrowski crimes had on the couple.

Mr Justice Charleton said Piotrowski had behaved in an "insane way" and had gathered together information before going to the couple's home with the equipment to tie them up.

He sentenced Mr Piotrowski to five concurrent life sentences for the false imprisonment of the woman, the three sexual assaults and the rape. Mr Piotrowski was also jailed for other concurrent terms of ten, five and ten years for the aggravated burglary and the assault and false imprisonment of the man.

Mr Piotrowski had been convicted by a jury last October of rape and oral rape of the woman on November 25, 2007.

He was also found guilty by the jury of entering the house as a trespasser while armed with a bladed weapon and a weapon capable of discharging a noxious liquid gas, false imprisonment of both the woman and her boyfriend, aggravated sexual assault and raping the woman with a vibrator on the same date.

He pleaded guilty on the day of his trial to assault causing harm to the man on the same date.