An 18-year-old man convicted of orally raping and sexually assaulting an underage girl has been given a 42-month prison sentence, with the final 21 months suspended.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was convicted as a juvenile by a jury following a trial last February. He orally raped and sexually assaulted a then-16-year-old girl in a public park in west Dublin on January 17th, 2020.
The man, who has autism and was a juvenile at the time of the crimes and at his trial, pleaded not guilty. He does not accept the jury's verdict, nor does his family.
Sentencing him on Wednesday, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring said the headline sentence for the crimes was a prison term of five years.
However, taking into account the man's personal circumstances, including his autism, the absence of previous convictions and the sentence that would be applied were he still a child, she sentenced him to 42 months' imprisonment, suspending the final 21 months.
Ms Justice Ring sentenced him also to 18 months for sexual assault, with the sentence to run concurrently with the sentence for oral rape.
She ordered that he attend all education and therapy offered to him while detained and bound him to keep the peace on his release, under the supervision of the Probation Service, for the period of the suspended sentence.
When the court registrar read the sentence to the man and asked if he understood, he indicated he did not and his defence barrister James Dwyer SC intervened to explain. When he shrugged his shoulders, apparently indicating lack of understanding, Mr Dwyer suggested that matters might be further explained to him later.
Outbursts
There were rowdy scenes in the court after the sentence was handed down and immediately outside the courtroom.
Relatives of the man, including his mother, swore and shouted abuse at the victim's family as they conferred with prosecution lawyers. At an earlier hearing, a man was ordered from the court after a similar disruptive outburst.
At an earlier hearing, a detective garda told Maurice Coffey SC, prosecuting, that on the evening in question, the then-16-year-old girl was out with her sister and friend. She had consumed alcohol and they were joined by a large group of boys, some of whom they knew.
The detective said the victim left the group to meet her friend, and in her own view she was “quite drunk” and had difficulty walking. The then 15-year-old accused, who she did not know and who had been part of the group, offered to bring her to her friend and she declined.
He tugged at her to go with him, she said she could not walk and he said he would help her before putting his arms around her. He dragged her to a patch of grass, became more aggressive and pushed her against a gate.
The accused then sexually assaulted and orally raped the girl before running away. The victim rang her friends and told them what had happened before reporting the matter to gardaí and being brought to a sexual assault treatment unit.
The defendant was identified to gardaí by the complainant going through mutual friends on Facebook until she found him.
Consent
On his arrest, the accused handed in a preprepared statement in which he claimed the girl had been flirting with him, that she approached him and asked him to walk with her, that they kissed and that she consented to both oral sex and sexual intercourse.
In her victim impact statement, which she read out before the court, the victim said that for the last two years it was not the accused who has had to pay for what he did, but it was her and her family who did.
The victim said she was scared to leave her house, scared his face would be around the corner. She said she would sit up every night crying, hoping no one would hear her.
She said the accused took the funny, joking and confident person she once was and it is only now that she has got a little bit of her back. She said she got a little bit of herself back during counselling and finally felt she was on the right track.
The victim said she was “one lucky girl” to have had her family through all of this. She said she is in a very happy relationship now and that her partner has been really supportive.
She said when the trial came around “every little emotion came back”, but she was not going to show it and was keeping her head up. She said the anxiety in her family home for four weeks was different to anything any of them had felt before.
The victim said that when she was being cross-examined, she had to excuse herself to be physically sick. She said she was not going to let the accused break her down any more than he already had.
She said that during the trial, the accused sometimes chose not to show up and his demeanour throughout the trial showed no respect for the court. She said he blatantly had his feet on chairs, was on his phone and would “kick off” if he had to stay after 4pm.
The victim said she also has autism, but did not use that as an excuse not to be in court. She said she does not believe he realises the impact he has had on her and her family.
As she was reading her victim impact statement, the accused began loudly making comments from the body of the court such as: “She is lying out of her mouth” and “She is talking sh*t”.
When the accused continued to make similar comments after being warned to stop, the judge ordered that he be removed from the courtroom. He later declined to return to the court prior to his counsel giving a plea in mitigation.
Standing in the dock, prison staff told the man he would be taken initially to Mountjoy Prison, a suggestion that prompted swearing from them.
His mother went over to where the victim's associates were and, putting her hands behind her in mock cuffing, suggested they jail her too.
Outside the court, gardaí maintained a low-key but visible presence.
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.
In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.
