Man who abused girl during her foster placement in his home as a teen jailed for two years

Eimear Dodd

A young man who abused a girl while she was staying in his home during a foster placement when he was a teenager has been jailed for two years.

The 24-year-old Wicklow man was convicted of eight counts of sexual assault following a trial at the Central Criminal Court last December.

He pleaded guilty to two further counts of sexual assault before the start of the trial. He has no previous convictions.

The offending took place on dates between December 2015 and July 2017, when he was aged between 13 and 15 years old and the girl was aged between 10 and 11.

The court heard that the girl was being fostered by the boy’s family. She told her mother in 2018, and Tusla made a referral to the gardaí in February 2018.

Sentencing the man on Monday, Judge Eileen Creedon commended the complainant for her “great courage” in coming forward about the abuse, given that her foster mother was the mother of her abuser.

She noted she must take into account the age of the defendant when he committed the offences.

She set a headline sentence of four years, which she reduced to three years, taking into account mitigating factors including his early guilty pleas to two of the offences and his lack of previous convictions.

She suspended the final year of the three-year sentence on a number of conditions, including that he remain under the supervision of the Probation Service for two years after his release from custody.

The court previously heard that the girl told specialist garda interviewers in May 2018 that the boy touched her inappropriately. She said he made her touch his penis, and he also digitally penetrated her.

The boy was interviewed in November 2019 while he was when he was 16, and in a prepared statement, he denied digitally penetrating the girl. He admitted to pulling down her clothes and getting her to touch his penis.

He said this happened four times around October 2015.

The boy said he was willing to engage with any services and attend therapy. He was interviewed again in September 2019 and denied touching the girl’s breast area.

The investigating garda agreed with Paul Murray, defending, that before a second set of more serious allegations were made by the girl, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) initially directed that no prosecution should take place. It was accepted that this would have been a relief to his family.

It was also agreed that the first set of allegations related to what the defendant was convicted of following the trial.

The garda also accepted that the defendant attended specialist counselling after the allegations came to light and that he complied with a safety plan put in place, as another foster child was living with the family.

Reading her victim impact statement, the injured party said she should have felt safe and secure in the foster home, but “instead I was taken advantage of”.

“As a child, I didn’t understand why he was doing these things to me and why I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone”, she said, adding that she felt she’d get in trouble if she told anyone.

She also felt that the boy’s mother would defend him and that he knew this and took advantage of it.

She said she believes he knew what he was doing was wrong, but didn’t care and thought he’d got away with it when she left the care of his family.

She said he got to go with his life while she has struggled with self-esteem, self-hatred and feelings of shame.

She said she felt she wasted her teenage years as a result of the abuse as she was too scared to go out or to have her first boyfriend.

She said the abuse has had a lasting impact and “will be with me for the rest of my life”.

Murray asked the court to take into account his client’s young age at the time, his admissions to gardaí and his expressions of remorse. A letter of apology was handed to the court.

He submitted that the court had to consider the DPP’s initial decision not to prosecute, which changed when more serious allegations were made, which his client was not convicted of.

Murray suggested the court could impose a suspended sentence.

His client has not come to other negative attention, and his partner and parents were in court to support him. He is working and volunteering in the community.

Several testimonials from family members and his employer were handed to the court. These included one from a woman who was fostered by the man’s family, who described him as a brother who tries to better himself.

The court heard that the injured party wished to waive her right to anonymity so that the man could be named.

Noctor said she was bringing the matter to the attention of the judge due to the fact that the man was underage at the time of the offence.

Murray said the defence opposed this and asked the court to make an order that the man could not be identified.

He noted this client’s young age when the offending occurred and the history of the case, submitting there had been delays which were not his client’s fault.

After hearing from counsel for the prosecution, Creedon said in all the circumstances of the case, she would make an order directing that the man cannot be identified in reporting.

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. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.