By March 2023, Kadima Mbuye was not an unknown first offender. He had eight previous Irish convictions, six involving exposure or public masturbation. He then entered the room of a woman recovering from surgery at University Hospital Limerick and committed another sexual offence.

8Previous convictions before the hospital case.
6For substantially similar sexual conduct.
20 monthsLatest prison sentence.
~€215,000Combined disclosed custody benchmark.

The hospital offence

At about 4am on 31 March 2023, Mbuye passed behind the privacy curtain around a postoperative patient’s bed and masturbated in front of her. In pain and unable to defend herself, she pretended to sleep and pressed the alarm. The conduct continued while the call bell sounded.

The woman later described flashbacks, disrupted sleep and PTSD, and avoided hospital follow-up because she feared seeing him again. A Circuit Court jury convicted Mbuye in January 2024. Judge Tom O’Donnell called the evidence deeply disturbing and imposed 20 months, backdated to 2 July 2023.

The repeated pattern

In 2019, Mbuye had been convicted of two similar offences at the Mount Trenchard accommodation centre. The court then heard that he already had four convictions for the same conduct and had served six months. A probation bond followed. By the hospital sentencing, his record had grown to eight previous convictions, six for exposure or public masturbation.

Immigration and deportation record

Court reports describe Mbuye as a Congolese international-protection applicant resident since approximately 2014. At sentencing, his barrister said an operative deportation order would take effect on release. The judge refused to treat that future deportation as mitigation.

A gross 20-month term from July 2023 ended around March 2025 before remission or administrative adjustment. No official source located by 25 July 2026 confirms whether removal occurred. Absence of an announcement is not proof of non-enforcement; it means the public record lacks a verifiable conclusion.

Chronology

  • Approximately 2014: Reported arrival or residence began.
  • Before June 2019: Four similar convictions and a six-month term.
  • 28 June 2019: Two further exposure convictions and probation bond.
  • 31 March 2023: Hospital offence.
  • 2 July 2023: Charged and remanded.
  • 15 January 2024: Jury conviction.
  • 22 January 2024: Twenty-month sentence imposed.
  • 25 July 2026: No public confirmation located of deportation execution.

Cost benchmark

The 20-month term equals €165,120 at the 2024 staffed-space average. Adding the earlier disclosed six-month term gives a combined gross benchmark of €214,656.

This is not an invoice. It applies one annual average across different years and excludes remission, policing, prosecution, legal aid, probation, protection accommodation, healthcare and removal costs.

Questions the State should answer

  1. When was the deportation order signed?
  2. Why had six similar convictions not produced an earlier final immigration outcome?
  3. Was the order executed at release? If not, what barrier prevented it?
  4. What risk plan applied between prison, probation and the hospital offence?
  5. Why is there no publicly verifiable conclusion to the order mentioned in court?

Sources

Record checked: 25 July 2026. The unrelated 2021 knife allegation is not presented as a conviction.