Child threatened with drowning after sexual assault by cousin
Isabel Hayes and Declan Brennan
A man who sexually abused his 13-year-old cousin after luring her to an abandoned shed against her will has been jailed for eight years.
After the assault, the then 24-year-old man told the child that he would drown her in the river if she told anyone about it, the Central Criminal Court has heard. He later made threats against the girl's father, saying he would leave him looking like 'Chucky', the horror movie doll.
The court heard the defendant, who was originally charged with raping the child, was out on his pony and trap when he met the girl out walking. He told her to get up on the trap and drove her to the site of an isolated sewage treatment centre.
She began crying, and he told her to shut up. When they arrived at the site, she ran away through nettles and thorns to escape the man, but he caught hold of her and asked her why she had run. She told him she was scared.
He then brought her to a shed where he sexually assaulted and raped her, ignoring repeated appeals to stop and telling her to “shut up”. After the assault, the man made the child swear on the lives of various family members to stay silent.
A guilty plea to sexually assaulting the child was accepted by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on a full facts basis, prosecuting counsel Eoin Lawlor SC told the court. The offence took place at an address in the south-east of the country on June 25 last year.
The man, now aged 25, also pleaded guilty to one count of witness intimidation on a date in March this year. He has 81 previous convictions, including theft and fraud, road traffic offences and criminal damage.
Sentencing the man today, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said that, as an adult member of the victim's extended family who had some degree of authority, these “extremely serious offences” were a complete breach of trust.
“The child was terrified,” he said, noting that she began crying on the way to the site and was crying throughout.
Justice McDermott said the humiliating nature of the sexual assault and the threats he made to her and her family were aggravating factors. He said the victim, who was in court for the sentence hearing, is a “very brave girl” who showed exemplary courage and great character in coming forward, despite the threats made to her.
“He clearly believes he can threaten anyone with violence, child or adult, to get his way,” the judge said.
Mr Justice McDermott said he was obliged to take into consideration the early plea of guilty, which meant the child and her family did not have to face a trial and the prospect of cross-examination. In light of this, he reduced the headline sentence to nine years.
He suspended the final year for a period of two years on condition that the man keep the peace while in custody and for the two years after his release and engage fully with the Probation Services for that time, including engaging with offence-focused work and an assessment for a therapeutic group treatment programme.
He ordered that the defendant engage with Tusla to safeguard any potential future contact with children and that he should not contact or approach, directly or indirectly, the victim or her family.
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.
