Man sentenced for '16th birthday present' of rape
A Mayo man who raped a neighbour on her 16th birthday as he brought her home from a disco has been given a 10-year sentence by Mr Justice Barry White at the Central Criminal Court today.
Michael Allen (aged 29), a father of three with an address at St Gerald's Crescent, Ballyhaunis told the victim "this can be your birthday present" when he raped her on July 21, 2005.
Allen told gardaí they had consensual sex which they both enjoyed.
Detective Garda John Mulligan said Allen had five previous convictions from 2001 to 2006 for larceny, criminal damage, handling stolen property, failing to appear in court and road traffic offences.
Mr Justice White noted Allen's previous convictions, including criminal damage and handling stolen property and commented: "It cannot be said you were of previous good character and I cannot ignore the traumatic effect of this incident on the girl."
The court heard Allen suffered from serious mental health problems and has been admitted to hospital on several occasions. Mr Justice White suspended the final three years of the 10-year sentence on strict conditions and ordered Allen's name be placed on the sex offenders register.
The victim told prosecuting counsel, Ms Isobel Kennedy SC, that Allen had picked her and a friend up shortly after they had a row with a group of local boys in their town. She said her friend asked Allen if he would drive around to try and find the boys so that she could ask them to apologise for insulting her sister.
She said he drove "up the road a bit" but they soon decided to go back and her friend asked to be dropped off at her sister's house. She then planned for Allen to drop her to her home but he suggested driving up a particular road to try and find the boys.
"I told him that they are not up there and we should probably go home but he was driving around saying he was looking for the boys and they are probably around somewhere", the complainant said.
She claimed he then ended up stopping the car in what she described as a "mucky place" and she told him to go home because the boys were not going to be there but he leaned over and tried to kiss her.
She said she was trying to push him away and telling him to stop. When she started to cry, he told her to stop because he said he was "only messing".
The teenager said she tried to get away and managed to open the door and get out of the car but Allen caught her and pushed her up against the car before he used his hand to make sexual contact with her crotch area.
She said she was crying and telling him to stop but he pulled her away from the car and made her perform oral sex on him before he picked her up and put her into the back of the car.
She told Ms Kennedy she was "scrunched up in a ball" but he grabbed her legs and pulled her towards him. She was telling him to stop and trying to get him off her but she said he would not listen and he then raped her.
She said she had been too terrified to fight back and had just done everything Allen asked her to do.
She said Allen then got into the driver's seat and she got back into the passenger seat and he left her home. She said that on the way he told her not to tell anyone because he did not want his fiancé to find out.
The teenager said she telephoned her sister when Allen dropped her off and she stayed with her that night after telling her that he had raped her.
Her sister gave evidence that she received a hysterical phonecall at about 2am from the victim who was "crying and hyperventilating" and saying she had been attacked.
"She said she needed to talk to me and I just ran out of the door and met her on the road. She was in an awful state. She was crying and breathing heavily and said she had been raped."
Allen denied the teenager's allegation when arrested and told gardaí they had consensual sex which both of them enjoyed. He said he could not believe she had made the allegations against him: "I never raped anyone. Why is she doing this to me?"
He told gardaí she seemed to know the area very well and had told him the local boys she and her friend had been looking for would come to a particular spot to "chill out and smoke hash".
He said she leaned over at that place in the car to kiss him on the cheek and they then kissed before having consensual sex.
Det Gda Mulligan said Allen claimed she told him what happened "could be their secret" when he said he was worried about his fianceé finding out. He also said she had previously grabbed his groin at a function.
He also told gardaí at first that he had remained in his house when he and his partner arrived there after dropping the teenager and her friends home from a disco earlier that night.
Det Gda Mulligan said that after his partner told gardaí that Allen had not returned home with her that night, he told gardaí he had gone out to try and find cigarettes and had met the victim and her friend.
Allen told gardaí that when he got home his partner was angry with him for driving the car because he was disqualified at the time.
The jury also heard that Allen's semen had been found on samples taken from the victim.
Dr Emily Jordan, a forensic scientist, said there was "less than one chance in one hundred million" that the DNA found on the vaginal samples came from someone other than Allen.
