A teenager convicted of orally raping a minor is being investigated for sexual assault against a teenage girl in a Mayo town, a court has heard.
The Central Criminal Court heard on Wednesday morning that the 18-year-old has had 12 interactions with gardaí in the town since moving there, including a number of incidents involving vulnerable teenage girls.
Detective Inspector Kieran Hanley from the Mayo Divisional Protective Service Unit, which deals with sexual crimes and child protection, told Justice Paul McDermott that the offender's behaviour was “of great concern”.
Suspended sentence
Last May, the offender, who cannot be named for legal reasons, received a five-year prison sentence which was suspended in full for three years on a number of strict conditions. These included that he remain under the supervision of the Probation Services and engage with the service and continue to engage with therapeutic services.
He was also ordered to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for the three-year period.
The sentence was imposed by the Central Criminal Court after he had pleaded guilty to oral rape at a place in Waterford on a date in 2018. He was aged 16 and the victim in that case was aged under 15.
Dan Boland SC, prosecuting, told the court that the offender had moved to Mayo in September and had complied with the requirements of the Sex Offender Act by notifying gardaí of his presence and his residential address.
Missing girl
Det Insp Hanley testified that in September a 16-year-old girl was reported missing and found in the offender's company.
Later that month, a different 16-year-old girl, described as a vulnerable person, alleged that the offender had sexually assaulted her. This matter is still being investigated and the offender has not been charged.
On October 3rd, a 13 year old girl was reported missing and was located with the offender. There are no allegations of any inappropriate behaviour on his part and the girl was returned safely, Det Insp Hanley said.
As part of their enquiries, gardai had called to the offender's registered address and discovered that he was no longer living at this location and was in fact living rough in a derelict property.
Det Insp Hanley said that in mid October the first teenager was again reported missing and was again located with the offender, who the court heard she considers herself to be in a relationship with. This girl subsequently made a complaint to gardai alleging that the offender had physically assaulted her.
The garda inspector told the court that the offender has also been arrested for alleged public order offences, theft of alcohol from a shop and breach of the Sex Offenders Act in failing to notify gardai of his change of address. He was remanded on bail to November but failed to appear and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest.
When gardaí went to execute this warrant they found cannabis, valued at €25, on the offender. He has remained in custody since.
Probation Service
Speaking directly to the offender, who appeared via video-link from Castlerea prison, Justice McDermott said that while he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty, his association with young girls was worrying.
He told the offender that his sentence was suspended on the back of large amount of work carried out by multiple agencies with a view to setting up a structured programme for when the offender came out of care.
“You can't simply walk away from that,” the judge said, describing his attitude to the conditions as “very loose”.
He said the offender was leading a very unstructured life and was not engaging with the Probation Service. He said it would be easy for the court to simply conclude “I've had enough” and to activate the suspended sentence.
He said he would give the offender another chance to comply with the conditions of the sentence and adjourned the case to January 31st next. He said he was hesitant given the nature of the offending and said that on the next date he would need to see evidence of a commitment to engage with the services provided.
“I want to hear back from them that you have positively engaged and it’s not just lip service. I am not going to simply roll over on the basis that you are saying the right things.
“If I have a workable programme with a proper commitment; unless I have that real commitment, I'm not interested. If that's the way you want to play it, I will simply impose the sentence,” he said.
