A man who orally raped his partner’s teenage daughter while he kept a watch out the window to make sure the woman was not returning home from work has been jailed for four years.
The 45-year-old man pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one charge of oral rape of the then 17-year-old girl at her home on July 17th, 2019. His trial had been due to begin next week.
A local garda told Paul Carroll SC, prosecuting, that the girl came home after being caught out in the rain. Her mother was at work and the man was in the sitting room watching television.
He made some comment about how the girl's tan had been affected by the rain before he leaned over, pulled off her top and started kissing her breasts.
The teenager later told specialist interviewing gardaí that she was shocked and did not know what to do.
He continued to kiss her breasts and began touching her vagina. He said “where do we go from here?” before he got her to go on her knees and forced her to give him oral sex.
The girl said she was worried about her mother coming home, and he replied: “It’s OK, I am going to look out the window.”
She was confused and shocked and did not know what to do. The man later told her in a text message “not to tell anyone”.
She later replied that she did not want “what happened yesterday to happen again”.
She later told her mother and the woman made the man leave the house. He was arrested and interviewed but “exercised his right to silence”, the garda told Mr Carroll.
'Appalling incident'
Mr Carroll said there was no victim impact statement before the court as the girl did not wish to make one, telling gardaí she “just wished to move on with my life”.
The garda agreed with Sean Gillane SC, defending, that his client has not come to garda attention since this matter, and has abided by his bail conditions. He confirmed that the man had a history of mental health difficulties.
Mr Gillane said it was “an appalling incident, not just in terms of the sexual act but also as it was a terrible breach of trust and an exploitation of an age gap”.
He asked the court to accept that it was “a stand-alone incident and does not form a pattern of abuse”.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott said reports before the court recommended that the man continue to take the medication prescribed to him for his mental health.
A probation report indicated that the man believed “consent was implied because the teenager didn’t say no”, which the judge said showed a lack of insight into the seriousness of the offence and the harm it caused.
Mr Justice McDermott said this was an offence committed against a child in her own home and involved a serious breach of trust.
He said she was somewhere where she was “entitled to have a sense of security and protection” and added that the fact there was no victim impact statement “does not mean she was not harmed, she was”.
Mr Justice McDermott set a headline sentence of seven years, which he reduced to five years and six months, having taken into account the mitigation, including the man’s plea of guilty and lack of previous convictions.
The final 18 months of that term was suspended on strict conditions, including that he engage with the Probation Service for three years upon his release from prison and that he engages with any treatments or programmes as recommended by them.
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.
