A young man who was not prepared to accept a teenage girl’s refusal of consent and continued to have sex with her against her will has been jailed for defilement.
The now 20-year-old pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to engaging in a sexual act with a child in Co Westmeath on September 25th, 2021. The plea was accepted by the Director of Public Prosecutions on the basis that full facts would be presented to the court.
A local detective told Garrett Baker SC, prosecuting, that the young girl was 15 years old at the time when she agreed to meet with the defendant, who was two years older.
They met in a public area in a housing estate. The teenager asked the girl if she wanted to have sex. She said she continually said “no” but ultimately said “OK” and he began to have sex with her.
She later told specialist gardaí that she asked him to stop but he replied “just take it”. She said she felt scared because she didn’t really want to it. She knew the teenager as he was friends with her brother.
The girl told gardaí that she said “no over and over again” before sex started. He told her afterwards not to tell anyone what happened.
She said he then asked her why she looked angry. She pretended that her mother had been trying to contact her in an attempt to get away as she didn’t want to hang around with him afterwards.
She later told school friends what had happened and gardaí were alerted the following October.
The accused was arrested in May 2022 and he denied entirely what had happened. He claimed he had been in his grandmother’s home and denied the allegation.
He suggested that the teenager was “romantically attracted” to him but he had rejected her.
When asked by gardaí if his DNA would be found on her, he denied that it would be.
The detective confirmed that the teenager was re-arrested after the DNA was obtained but he continued to deny the allegation.
He said gardaí they used to play football and suggested this was how his DNA may have got on her. He told gardaí: “I didn’t touch that girl”.
The detective confirmed he has no previous convictions.
The girl took the stand to read her victim impact statement. She said she was still bleeding a week later.
“My virginity was taken. I can never get that back again,” she said. She said the day it happened she felt like she couldn’t tell anyone and sat in her bedroom crying.
She said afterwards she struggled to walk the local streets alone, “even in broad daylight”.
She suffered depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder. She said it felt like she had lost the will to live. She attended counselling for over a year and she said she still “needs help to get over this”.
She said she had difficulty concentrating in school and couldn’t pass her exams.
“It had a huge effect on my life,” the teenager continued, outlining how the smell of food turned her stomach. She stopped eating and was extremely underweight but she later managed to get her eating under control.
She said she lost many friends and there was a point that she had no friends at all.
“I pushed everyone away from me. I struggled to control my temper and took most of my anger out on my family, even though they did nothing wrong,” the teenager concluded.
The case was adjourned after evidence was heard last October to allow for the preparation of updated reports.
Mr Justice Paul McDermot said today/yesterday (Monday) that there can be occasions when the court takes a lenient view of fully consensual engagement between teenagers who are younger than the age of consent but he said in this case there was “a degree of pressure applied”.
He said the girl “relented but also immediately withdrew her consent” and the defendant was “not prepared to accept her refusal of consent and continued to have sex with her against her will”.
Mr Justice McDermott also noted that the defendant maintained in six interviews with gardaí that he had no contact with the girl and provided “a half-baked conspiracy theory” to explain why his DNA was found on her.
He added that reports before the court stated that the defendant “needs to engage honestly” with those compiling the reports.
“He is still in a state of denial and has a very limited understanding of the damage he has caused,” Mr Justice McDermott said.
Referring to a letter of remorse that had been written by the defendant for the hearing, the judge commented that it has “come at a very late stage in the process”.
Justice McDermott acknowledged that the plea of guilty eventually entered by the accused ensured that the victim would not be put through the trauma of the trial.
He added that he finds it hard to reconcile his recent expression of remorse with his garda interviews and the reports prepared for the court. “There was a persistent refusal to accept that he had done anything wrong,” the judge said.
“Centrally he has to take into account the damage done to her – she has suffered physical pain and injury, on the day and was then diagnosed with depression and anxiety and had to take medication and undergo counselling.”
He noted that the offence had interfered with the girl’s education and she became isolated.
“She struggles as a result of the offence. She said this quite clearly in her victim impact statement,” Mr Justice McDermott said.
He acknowledged that the defendant had no previous convictions, had not come to garda attention since and had a good work history.
“He has made positive advances in his life but he needs to face up to the fact that he committed this offence and the damage he has caused,” Mr Justice McDermott said.
He imposed a sentence of three years and suspended the final 20 months on strict conditions including that the man engage with the Probation Service for two years and undergo any suitable programmes as directed by them and attend any psychiatric or psychological services.
He ordered that the man not have any contact with the victim or her family either directly or indirectly.
Delia Flynn SC, defending, told the court that there was a comprehensive psychologist report before the court which outlined her client’s background. His father left the family home when he was three years old and he was later diagnosed with ADHD which he was prescribed medication for.
His mother formed a new relationship and this partner was violent both towards the accused and his mother. He left school early and began using drugs at young age.
Ms Flynn told the court that her client was also sexually abused as a young child.
She told Mr Justice McDermott that her client has expressed remorse and some insight into how inappropriate if was for him to behave in this way. He has since moved from the area and is in a new relationship.
On Monday, Ms Flynn read a letter from the man which she said he had asked that she read to the court.
He said he was only 17 years old at the time of the offence and was “too young and too immature” to realise the wrong he had done. He said he has fully learned his lesson.
He said he hoped time would help the victim to heal and move on to better things. “I fully take responsibility for my actions,” he said.
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.
