A man who was on trial accused of raping his partner's 23-month-old toddler with an object has pleaded guilty to charges of reckless endangerment and child cruelty.
The jury in the Central Criminal Court trial of the 30-year-old Dublin man was due to hear closing speeches on Tuesday, but was instead told the man had agreed to plead guilty to five charges, which would bring the trial to an end.
Mr Justice David Keane told the jury that the man's guilty pleas were acceptable to the Director of Public Prosecutions. He thanked jury members for their service, noting the difficult subject matter they had dealt with and he exempted them from jury duty for ten years.
At the start of the trial nearly two weeks ago, the man pleaded not guilty to 10 charges, including section 4 rape, sexual assault and reckless endangerment of the toddler, as well as child cruelty to her and her brother, on dates between February and April 2018.
The girl was 23 months old and the boy was aged between two and three at the time of the alleged offences, when the accused was their mother's partner. The man cannot be named to protect the identities of the children.
On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to one count of reckless endangerment of the toddler by placing her at risk of substantial harm on dates between March 29th, 2013, and April 5th, 2018. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of child cruelty towards her and two counts of child cruelty towards her brother on April 5th, 2018. The charges carry a maximum sentence of seven years.
The trial heard the family was under investigation by gardaí at the time of the offending and had been referred to Tusla the previous November after the girl, then 18 months, was taken to hospital covered in bruises.
In his opening to the jury, Shane Costelloe SC, prosecuting, told the trial that on April 5th, 2018, the girl was again taken to hospital at the behest of gardaí and social workers after gardaí were alerted to the man failing to look after the two small children in a Dublin shopping centre. The girl was again covered in bruises, had a bloody nose and appeared unwell.
Injuries
In the hospital, she was discovered to have a “severe genital injury with perineal disruption”, medical experts told the trial. Doctors told the jury no explanation was given by her mother or the man as to how the injury had occurred.
Doctors said the injury could have become infected, or developed into sepsis, if it had continued to be left untreated. The child may have medical complications in later life as a result of the injury, the court was told.
The toddler also had an old fractured wrist injury which had gone untreated, and was covered in bruises with some bite marks, the court heard. Both children were immediately taken into care in the wake of her hospitalisation.
When asked by Seamus Clarke SC, defending the man, if the severe genital injury to the girl could have occurred accidentally, one paediatrician likened the injuries to a traumatic car injury or a fall resulting in impaling. She noted the child's caregivers gave no such explanation, or any explanation at all, as to how the injury could have occurred.
Another doctor told the court he could not say how the injuries occurred, but mentioned three possibilities – blunt force injuries, straddle injuries or penetrative injuries.
Despite their extreme youth at the time of the offending, both children were interviewed by specialist gardaí about the allegations a couple of years later. The girl was interviewed shortly after her fourth birthday. The boy was interviewed when he was four and again when he was five.
During her garda interview, the girl told gardaí that the accused man bit her on her “private” area and that he also “hit” her on her privates with “a stick”. She said it was “really sore”, that she was “crying” and “only a baby” at the time.
The boy told gardaí the man was a “bold daddy”. “He didn't tell the truth,” the little boy said, adding: “He hurted us.” He said the man hurt him and his sister “every day” and laughed about it.
The man spent much of his time bent over double in the dock and appeared emotional when the garda interviews were being played in court. He was otherwise mostly expressionless throughout the trial. He occasionally brought a puzzle book to court.
Cross-examination
Both children, now aged seven and eight, were briefly cross-examined at trial by defence counsel. This took place via videolink and with an intermediary present to support them.
Prior to the girl's cross-examination and in the absence of the jury, prosecution counsel asked that care be taken not to pan out in the courtroom and show the accused man, as this would be “detrimental” to the child.
The court also heard the little boy has anxiety issues and is hyper-vigilant.
Under questioning, the little girl said she could not now remember living with the man, or any of the allegations she made to gardaí when she was four. When asked if she could have been mistaken in relation to what she said about the man hitting her on her vagina with a stick, the girl paused momentarily before shaking her head and saying: “No.”
When cross-examined at trial, the boy also said he could not now remember anything the man had allegedly done.
In legal argument in the absence of the jury, Mr Clarke argued that neither the medical evidence nor the testimony of the girl was able to establish beyond reasonable doubt that the genital injury was as a result of penetration.
He submitted the prosecution case was that the man penetrated her with an object, but that the girl did not tell gardaí this. He said that while one had to be accommodating of the language of a child, she said he “hit” her with a stick.
Mr Clarke submitted that these were young children giving evidence of a time when they were at a “very tender age”. He noted the specialist garda interview of the girl took place two years and one month after the date of the alleged offence, and she was cross-examined at trial over five years after it allegedly occurred.
He noted the children now have no memories of the evidence they gave to gardaí and there was no psychological evidence before the court of when children lay down memories. He suggested policy-makers need to be aware of this issue and that garda interviews and cross-examinations need to be closer together in time.
Further legal argument on these issues were due to take place this week, but instead a plea deal was reached between the parties and the man entered the guilty pleas.
Last year, the children's mother pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of recklessly endangering her children, with five counts of child cruelty taken into account. She was given a five-year jail sentence in July 2022, but she is appealing the severity of this sentence in the Court of Appeal.
Investigation
The man fled the jurisdiction shortly after the girl was hospitalised and has been in custody since his return.
He gave one voluntary interview to gardaí in January 2018, when the initial investigation into the girl's November 2017 hospitalisation was underway. He told gardaí he would never harm the children and that his partner was a good mother.
The child cruelty charges the man pleaded guilty to relate to the incident at the shopping centre when the man was seen on CCTV footage walking away from the children, leaving the little boy – who had recently turned three – to trail through the busy centre holding on to his toddler sister's hand. This footage was played to the jury.
Security guards, who also gave evidence at the trial, alerted gardaí to the man's behaviour and the children were found standing alone outside a nearby apartment complex a short time later. The little girl was covered in bruises, had a bloody nose, was shivering in the cold and still clutching her brother's hand, the court heard.
Creche workers who also gave evidence described how both children had high absenteeism rates. They described how the girl had bruising to her genital area in February 2018, was walking around clutching her genital area and appeared in pain. One creche worker recalled how, despite not knowing her very well, the toddler clung to her and did not want to go home with the man when he came to collect her.
In relation to the charges no longer before the court, the man had pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the girl by penetrating her vagina with an object and to sexually assaulting her by biting her on her genital area.
The man had also pleaded not guilty to failing to seek medical help for an injury to the girl's wrist and causing bruising to her face and body. In relation to the boy, the man had denied a charge of causing bruising to his penis, body and face.
He will be sentenced for the reckless endangerment charge and the child cruelty charges on October 9th.
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.
