Victim tells court rapist 'destroyed her childhood' by coercing her into sexualised games as he gets 18 months
A man who convinced a child to play sexualised games of truth or dare and later coerced her into sexual intercourse has been jailed for 18 months.
Graham Doyle (aged 31) was a teenager when he orally raped the 13-year-old. During a relationship which he told her to keep secret he repeatedly sexually assaulted her.
He pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to four sample counts of sexual assault and one count of oral rape in Dublin on dates between August 1, 2004, and March 31, 2005.
Doyle of North Circular Road, Dublin, has four previous convictions for offences of defilement of a child under the age of 15 which date back to 2011. He met the teenage victim in that case on a social networking site while claiming to still be a teenager himself.
The rape victim went to gardaí in 2013 after reading about Doyle's convictions for defilement of a child.
Mr Justice Michael White sentenced Doyle to five years imprisonment but suspended the final three-and-a-half years of that sentence on condition that he be of good behaviour and engage with probation services for the entirety of that suspended period.
Mr Justice White said that the previous convictions, which post-date these offences, re-enforce that Doyle “had improper or deviant sexual tendencies”. He acknowledged that Doyle had used “severe psychological coercion” on the victim in this case.
He said the aggravating factors in the case were the seriousness of the offences, the impact they had on the victim and her age at the time of the offences.
Mr Justice White said the mitigating factors were the early plea of guilty, Doyle's “very genuine remorse”, his age at the time of the offences and his lack of previous convictions at the time.
He said Doyle was a minor at the time of the offending and there is an important public policy issue in sentencing an adult for their actions as a child.
At an earlier sentence hearing, Detective Garda Lorraine Killilea told Orla Crowe SC, prosecuting, that Doyle was aged 16 when he encountered the then 13-year-old victim.
The two entered into a relationship which he convinced her to keep secret. He began to invite her to his home while his parents were absent and involved her in sexualised games of truth or dare.
On one occasion, in late 2004, Doyle signalled the victim to come into his bedroom wardrobe while her friend was in the room and made her perform oral sex on him. He talked the injured party into sexual intercourse on two occasions, the court heard.
The court heard that the four counts of sexual assault were sample counts and that the offending behaviour took place two or three times a week, coming to an end in April of 2005.
In interviews with gardaí, he made admissions to the offending but claimed he was unaware of the legal age limits at the time.
Det. Gda Killilea agreed with James Dwyer SC, defending, that the victim was psychologically coerced into the sexual activity rather than being physically forced.
In her victim impact statement, which she read out in court, the woman said she was taken advantage of by a “wolf in sheep's clothing” who destroyed her childhood.
The woman said that at first she was excited to have a boyfriend and was looking forward to holding hands and going on dates to the cinema, but Doyle had more sinister motives.
She said she wished she could open up her chest and show the court the scars on her heart. She said she had spent half her life trying to bury the events but has never been able to do so.
The woman said the events left her with little to no self-worth and that she felt as though what had happened was her fault. When she read about Doyle's convictions the feelings came back worse than ever because she knew that “there was another me out there”.
“I was the practice run,” she said. The woman said that family members have been unable to dissuade her from the belief that she is responsible for the other victim and that had she told someone of the offences when she was a teenager then the other girl would not have been hurt.
She said she came to court to give her 13-year-old self a voice and her current self some closure, and that she had at least achieved the first of her goals.
Mr Justice White said that she should not feel any responsibility for what occurred as she was an innocent child who was taken advantage of by an older boy. He paid tribute to her courage and wished her the best in the future.
