'I am holding you accountable': Nurse tells doctor who raped her after night out

David Raleigh

A nurse who was raped by a doctor in Limerick faced her abuser in court today and told him: “I got justice.”

Louay Kila, (31), who worked as a registrar doctor at the University Hospital Limerick (UHL) at the time, was convicted at the Central Criminal Court, Limerick, Thursday, of the rape and sexual assault of the victim on March 2, 2024.

Kila, a native of Morocco, and with an address at Cois Luachra, Dooradoyle, Limerick, contested the rape and sex assault charges at his four-day trial, held earlier this week.

However, a jury found him guilty of both offences by unanimous decision after four hours of deliberations on Thursday. The nurse said she wished to retain her legal right to anonymity but that Kila be identified. The court consented to this.

On Friday, the nurse faced Kila at his sentencing hearing and read her own victim impact statement in court, on behalf of all women who have been the victims of sex crimes.

“To my rapist, I stood up, and I am holding you accountable for your actions, and I got justice,” the nurse said.

“I hope to be an inspiration for any woman who has dealt with an incident like this and encourage them to stand up and hold their rapists accountable,” she said.

“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 (women) 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 University Hospital Limerick (UHL) and encountered one another as part of a larger group while on a night out in Limerick City.

Later, at an apartment, where they and friends went, Kila had tried to force the victim to kiss him by holding her jaw open. She rebuked him and told him to leave her alone.

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 heard.

Later on in the night, the victim said she was “in shock” when she awoke to find Kila penetrating her.

Kila also digitally penetrated the victim with a number of his fingers, and continued doing so after she told him to “stop”.

After Kila left the apartment, the nurse told her friends: “I just kept telling him (Kila) to stop.”

Gardaí were alerted and made efforts to try and track Kila down. He was arrested 20 days after the assaults.

Kila 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 “well being” 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 had engaged in “consensual” kissing and digital penetration on the night.

Today, the nurse told the court the rape and assault impacted “my health, my livelihood, my family life, my potential relationships and my sense of self” and she was “diagnosed with PTSD and put on antidepressants just to cope with the trauma”.

“I live in a state of constant anxiety and fear, and I often get flashbacks and nightmares of what happened to me.”

The woman said that prior to the rape and assault she had been “excited” to be nursing at UHL, but that after the rape she “couldn't return to work” and she said she felt “physically sick” walking back into the hospital, where Kila continued working for a time.

“I was no longer able to work in that hospital or deliver effective patient care as I was constantly looking over my shoulder hoping that Louay Kila wasn't nearby,” said the nurse.

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?”

“My job is to care for patients, and I felt like a failure because I knew this man was delivering care to vulnerable people and I knew what he was capable of doing to people in vulnerable positions.”

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 Kila 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 (Kila) 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,” said Mr Carroll.

“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 in court again for sentence next Friday, 13th March.