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A DUBLIN MAN, who was a teenager when he sexually assaulted his 12-year-old cousin who has a disability, has been given a one-month suspended sentence.
The allegations came to light after their grandmother walked in and found him, then aged 16, in the girl’s bedroom.
The girl has a serious disability as well as speech difficulties, and her mental age was below her actual age, the Dublin Children’s Court was told.
The accused, now aged 24, had delayed his case by five years after skipping court in 2014, and having been homeless for a number of years. He cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim.
A pre-sentence report placed him at a low risk of re-offending. He was also working, interested in furthering his education and his life was now a lot more stable, the court heard.
However, he remained socially isolated and no longer associated with his older friends because they were involved in drug use, the defence had said. The man was taking part in a sexual offending treatment programme.
The 2014 case
The accused had pleaded guilty seven years ago to the sexual assault which occurred in 2010 at the girl’s home in south Co Dublin. However, in 2014 he skipped court when he was due to be sentenced and he was then homeless for a number of years.
Gardaí located him in January after he secured accommodation.
Giving evidence about the incident, Garda Sergeant Eimear Monaghan told the court the grandmother had walked into the girl’s bedroom and found the teen there. He had his trousers and pants around his ankles and was sitting beside his cousin on her bed.
The girl has a serious disability, as well as speech difficulties and her mental age was below her actual age, the sergeant said.
When brought to a hospital she would not let a doctor examine her. A specialist Garda interview of the girl was held, which she found distressing.
Statements to Gardaí
Garda Sergeant Monaghan said the child stated the accused, “put the thing that helps you go to the toilet in her bum and touched her bum with his hands and put his hand in her vagina”.
When arrested a couple of weeks later, the youth, then aged 16, made admissions and detailed how he touched the child around her breast and vagina, inside and outside her clothes.
He admitted: “He inserted two fingers in her vagina and touched her vagina with his penis and attempted to put it inside but changed his mind”. He also went into some detail about the girl’s speech problems and medical difficulties, the court heard.
The court heard the accused and another sibling had been taken into care at a young age.
The accused’s history
Garda Sergeant Monaghan agreed with the defence there was an allegation the accused had been the victim of abuse when he was in foster care.
She agreed the man had not continued to come to Garda attention in the years he was homeless.
His father had died when he was young and his mother had drug and health problems.
He went into care when he was about seven and over the next nine years he had been in 10 different care placements. The court heard he ended up on the streets and found it difficult to cope.
Garda Sergeant Monaghan also said the girl had attended counselling for victims of sexual abuse.
Finalising the case, Judge Brendan Toale said he had to take into account that it happened nine years ago and the accused was a minor on the date of the offence. He noted he had no record of other offences but he was not prepared to leave him without a conviction for the sexual assault because it was too serious.
He imposed a one-month sentence but suspended it on condition he did not re-offend in the next two years.
The man, who did not address the court, must also continue to attend the treatment programme and remain under supervision of the Probation Service. He will also be registered under the Sex Offenders Act.
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Did I read that right ?
Suspended sentence 1 month ?
What do you have to do in this country to actually go to jail?
@Sal Paradise: That is a very very good question.
@David Corrigan: Import garlic labeled as onions will get you 6 years.
@Sal Paradise: not pay your TV license would do…..
@Sal Paradise:
Don’t pay your TV licence.
That will get you more time than this sicko.
@Sal Paradise: don’t pay your tv licence and you’ll go to jail
@Sal Paradise: steal from a church! I seem to remember someone actually getting incarcerated for this.
@Sal Paradise: dont pay your tv licence – !
@Sal Paradise: smuggle in garlic or not pay your tv licence
Ah why not throw him a few €100 judge as well he might need it as he has been homeless!!
Our Judicial system is again a joke
I give up! This is a daily read in backwards Ireland.
@Sal Paradise
Dont pay your TV license
@Pl Ster: or protest against water meters being installed outside your house
@stephen darling: or intimidate workers and act like a bunch of wasters
@Conor Thorne: Last time I checked my post I have no water bill coming in my door thanks to all them wasters as you put it..But as I’m taxed to death on every part of my life I do know some of that tax is paying for the clean water coming from my tap..
@Zippy: no you got raw sewage in the sea well done now excuse me I have to go fill my swimming pool. It’s my right thx to you
@Zippy: What has a water bill got to do with this case on here ? Just asking
@Conor Thorne: You’ll receive your excessive use bill in the post. Clown.
@Ian Breathnach: there is no excessive yet you absolute mope
@Zippy: Taxed to death….yet here you are !!
@Conor Thorne: so you think not paying water charges leads to raw sewage in the sea?
@Alan Scott: Sorry your right has nothing to do it with just responding to some ridiculous comment from a clown!
@Tommy Roche: responding to your good self
Is this article missing something? What have I just read….A teenager sexually assaults a vulberable girl with a disability and gets away with it? If i was that girls parent’s id ask for a retrial . Absolutely horrendous
@Andi O Donoghue: and he skipped the original court hearing
@Andi O Donoghue: definitely seems to be some complex family relationships involved in this. No mention of the vulnerable girls parents at any point. I imagine there is much not being told here.
@Christine Ahern: Third paragraph under ‘the accused’s history’
@Andi O Donoghue: Why ask for a retrial? He admitted his guilt. The issue is with the sentence handed down, which can be appealed by the DPP.
@Joe Bloggs: hold on here he was a kid himself, he was abused himself, he was homeless for many years.
He is an adult now of 24 , working and living in his own home. He is a low risk of re-offending, why take that away from him when he has stability after years of instability.
Another situation where a judge is not competent and should not be a judge
Ahh wasn’t he great helping the Garda out like that and true model citizen…
So one dude the other day got 20 years for what he did.
This guy walks free.
What is the craic with these Judges?? No consistency at all.
Disgrace
Holy jaysus if this doesn’t warrant a jail term what does?
My jaw hit the floor reading through the details of what he did. What an absolute disgrace.
Is there a list of judges in the country where it can be seen which were appointed into the position?
Some people have questions to answer
The justice system in this country is an absolute disgrace. That judge needs to be struck off.
He skipped court is thst the legal definition
This is how judges make money, they leave these cunce on the streets to reoffend and wait for them to appear again and again in front of them! Judges and solicitors make a fortune out of this policy.
@Macus Mc Mahon: Judges get paid a salary, regardless of appearances.
I certainly would have to question the Judge’s morals and his abilities to hear this case as this fella reached to the bottom of any moral standard’s when he invaded this poor girls life. I hope the DPP will intervene and give this S, Bag a proper sentence
You have to stop paying your bills thats only way people get locked up
He was a kid himself and a victim himself of abuse. He has rebuild his life, has found stability. Prison would only have a negative impact on him.
I have had to read this three times, what the actual f**k is going on in this country. How can someone who abuses a girl with severe disabilities not be a considered a risk to society ????? Shame on the judge, absolute disgrace.
Cut his balls off
@Sean Considine: grow up ffs
@Paul O’Sullivan: if it was your child you wouldn’t be asking anyone to grow up
@r-k: well I think it’s a juvenile to say ‘cut his balls off’
Dublin Teenager 15 who pleaded guilty, slashed throat of a woman (who survived), had access to online porn since age 11 and wanted to kill someone and felt entitled to do so based on his own reality and content absorbed.. It’s all related and out of control now. How many more violent sexually motivated child crimes have to happen. How many more Anna, Boy A and B tragedies.
This is a very sad case of neglect and many mitigating circumstances. I wouldn’t be so quick to judge. A child’s actions and behavior are not equal to adults and still developing and learning. This is possibly another case where a child at the time was likely over exposed by adult and inappropriate material, vid games, all sorts and re_enacting (complete lack of controls and regulation in Ireland), commits serious offences against another child. So many cases since Anna Kriegel, the likes of which were not happening in previous generation (before we had so much technology, over exposure, video games) . This could happen to anyone’s child (become the victim or actual perpetrator) and children can be easily led by other children. Society is not blameless. Children’s minds are being warped and sadly children and it seems very young males, teenagers committing violent crimes. Earlier this week a child was convicted of attempted murder, after planning it based on online content how to kill someone. More attacks in Courtown and other places. No where is really safe now. Education in schools and immediate regulations and enforcement to prevent children having access to adult over 18 content is needed urgently before it gets even worse. How many more children need to be injured or lives ruined (prison or sex offenders list) and parents of both destroyed before any action is taken?
What an utter travesty. What possible mitigating circumstances could warrant this animal getting a month of a sentence for the rape of a minor with intellectual disabilities. The fact that he disappeared prior to sentencing for 4 years could be seen could be viewed as part of the rational for a reduced sentence is simply mind boggling. Shame on the seriously broken “justice” system that exists in this country.
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