A man who repeatedly sexually abused and raped a little girl he was babysitting as a teenager nearly 40 years ago has been jailed for two years.
The 52-year-old Dublin man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the complainant, was found guilty by a Central Criminal Court jury of three counts of indecent assault and three counts of rape of the girl at her Dublin home on dates between February and November 1985.
She was seven-years-old and he was her 14-year-old babysitter.
A local garda told Eilis Brennan SC, prosecuting, that the girl's parents used to go out on Sunday nights and the boy would babysit her and her siblings.
The abuse started with the teenager touching the little girl as she lay in bed, and progressed to him raping her.
At one point, the girl told him she did not want him to come into her room anymore, but the abuse continued. It only ended when the girl's mother gave birth to a baby who required additional care, and the teenager stopped babysitting as a result.
The complainant, now aged 45, went to gardaí about the abuse in 2018. When questioned by gardaí, the man denied any wrongdoing. He does not accept the verdicts of the jury, the court heard. He has a couple of minor previous convictions.
He abused and raped me, all because he could
In her victim impact statement which she read out in court, the complainant said the man took her childhood innocence.
“He abused and raped me, all because he could,” she said.
After the abuse ended, the woman said she still had to face the man regularly, as he lived across the road and was a family friend.
She said she struggled with night terrors, anxiety and self-harming and, after the birth of her first baby, had post-natal depression and was afraid to leave her home.
She said she is now in counselling and “trying to find some peace for that seven-year-old girl who was so lonely and so scared”.
Anne-Marie Lawlor SC, defending, said the court had the unenviable task of sentencing a now 53-year-old man for something that occurred when he was 14. She submitted the court must take into account the fact he was a child at the time and that he had just reached the threshold of being held criminally responsible for his actions.
She said the passage of time since the offending, 38 years, was hugely significant.
The court heard the man has been in a relationship for many years and has children. A letter from his partner was handed into court outlining the “devastating” impact his imprisonment would have on the family.
He continues to deny the allegations and is “at a loss” as to why they were made against him, the court heard.
Breach of trust
Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring accepted it was a “complicated” case and that the man had rehabilitated himself in the 38 years since his offending, but she noted she must also look at how his abuse affected the complainant.
“While (he) was rehabilitated, I have to balance that with the fact that (the complainant) was carrying the effects of that offending and suffering over the years,” the judge said.
Sentencing him on Wednesday, Ms Justice Ring said the defendant made a “conscious decision” to ignore the complainant's requests to stop. She was “a child, seven years his junior, who had a clear idea that his behaviour was wrong”.
The judge noted that at the time of this offending, “children had no language or outlet to report abuse,” and also that it can “take decades” for victims of sexual abuse to speak about what happened to them as children.
Ms Justice Ring said the victim was a “brave woman who decided to speak about what had happened to her as a child”, first to people she trusted, then to gardaí and finally to a jury who were satisfied with her evidence “beyond a reasonable doubt”.
She said it is an aggravating feature that the man breached the trust of the victim, her parents and siblings as well of that of his own parents who had allowed him to babysit for neighbours.
Ms Justice Ring noted that these offences occurred almost 40 years ago, when the defendant was 14, and that he has since lived a “law-abiding life”.
She said a sentence of eight years would be appropriate for an adult in respect of each of the rape counts, before imposing a sentence of four years on the defendant. She suspended the final two years of that term.
Ms Justice Ring handed the man a sentence of two years on each of the indecent assault charges, and said she would have imposed a sentence of four years on an adult offender.
All sentences are to run concurrently and have been backdated to July 3rd when the man went into custody.
Ms Justice Ring said while the impact of sexual abuse may not “disappear” for a victim, it “should not define” them, and she wished the victim well for the future.
She noted that while the complainant is the primary victim in this case, her children are “secondary victims” who suffered in their relationship with her.
The judge said it is “sad” that the defendant's own children are also “secondary victims” because of his criminal actions “when he was a young child” for which he bears responsibility.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/, or visit Rape Crisis Help.
