A Dublin man who was around 18 years old when he raped and sexually abused his younger cousin has been jailed for five years.
The man, now aged 25 and who cannot be named for legal reasons, abused his cousin while visiting his family home. The victim was aged nine or 10 at the time of the abuse, while the accused man was aged 17 or 18.
He was convicted by a jury following a trial in May 2021 at the Central Criminal Court of one count of anal rape and five counts of sexual assault at an address in Dublin on various occasions in between 2013 and early 2015.
The man had pleaded not guilty to all charges. He has no previous convictions and his lawyers told the court he was likely aged 17 when the offending began.
Attacks
Giving evidence at a sentence hearing in July, a detective told the court that the accused was “treated as one of their own” by the victim’s family and was a regular visitor to their home in his late teens.
The detective said that the man would go up to the boy’s bedroom on the pretext of playing a video game and then sexually assault the victim.
During one of these incidents, the defendant stripped the victim of his clothes and raped him.
The victim later told specialist garda interviewers that he was in pain and “in shock” after the attack.
“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. He told an older sibling what happened in 2018.
Denials
The accused was arrested and interviewed by detectives in 2019 but denied sexually assaulting or raping his cousin.
In a victim impact statement, which was read before the court, the child's mother said he had been a “very affectionate” child before the abuse.
“He loved to cuddle up beside you on the chair and watch TV. Around nine to ten we started to see huge differences. He went into himself and was uncomfortable around people. He very rarely seemed to smile,” she said.
It breaks my heart to see my son so sad… if we could even get a glimpse of our beautiful boy
She said they put it down to bullying and tried to have it addressed at school.
“We couldn’t believe he’d kept it a secret for five years. How could someone, a family member we welcomed into our home, betray us like that?”
She said even now, her son is “extremely guarded and uncertain around men” and suffers flashbacks and suicidal ideation.
“It breaks my heart to see my son so sad… if we could even get a glimpse of our beautiful boy,” she said.
Passing sentence on Friday, Justice Michael White said the victim was “a very courageous young man”. He said the court hopes the victim can put his ordeal behind him.
Aggravated by breach of trust
Justice White said the offences were aggravated by the breach of trust, the victim's age and the impact on the victim and his family.
He said he took into account the accused man's youth at the time of the offence and his lack of previous convictions when considering sentencing.
Justice White sentenced the man to five years imprisonment. He also ordered that the man undergo one year of post release supervision by the Probation Service and explained that breaching this order is a separate criminal offence.
Addressing the injured party and his parents, who were in court for the sentence hearing, Justice White said he “was hugely impressed by the way he gave evidence.”
“You’re a completely innocent victim and you should not blame yourself,” Justice White said.
“Unfortunately these offences are carried out in secret. These offenders are devious and secretive and you should not blame yourselves in any way for it,” he told the family.
Justice White said the victim had shown “great courage” in coming forward.
