Two cousins who sexually assaulted teen in car given suspended sentences

by Eimear Dodd and Isabel Hayes

Two cousins who sexually assaulted a girl in a car in remote location when they were all teenagers have been given suspended sentences, with a judge ordering them to tell their family members of the crime they committed.

The men, now aged 23 and 20, were convicted by a jury of sexually assaulting the then 15-year-old girl on July 11, 2020 at a location in the Midlands following a Central Criminal Court trial last year. The younger man was acquitted of one count of attempted rape.

They are cousins and were aged 16 and 19 at the time of the attack, which occurred after the younger boy and the girl arranged to meet in secret. His older cousin drove him, and both teenagers sexually assaulted the girl by digitally penetrating her. She was left bleeding and injured after the attack, the court heard.

As part of the conditions of their suspended sentence, Ms Justice Caroline Biggs ordered the men to confirm to the court that their now wives and other family members, including parents and siblings, have been informed of the crime they committed.

She said she had confirmation the younger man had told his wife, but she told him to inform his siblings and parents. In relation to the older man, she said the court required confirmation he had told his wife what he had done.

The court heard they that all parties in the case are from the Travelling community and the judge noted the men were concerned about the community's view of them as sexual offenders.

She noted that they have both expressed remorse and now accept the verdicts of the jury. She also took into account Probation Services reports indicating neither man is likely to be a recidivist and that they are now both married.

She took into account other mitigating factors when suspending each sentence, including that both men were of a young age at the time of the offence and were influenced by their environment and upbringing.

The younger man has a low average cognitive ability and only knew about sex from pornography, the court heard, while the older man did not have sex until he was married.

“This is the type of case where – like they do in the North – the Probation Service and psychologists should be involved at the very beginning, as opposed to three or four years later, to seek to engage with these young men to get them to understand what consent looks like and what consent is,” the judge said.

She sentenced the younger man to 18 months and the older man to three years, which she suspended in full on a number of conditions, including that both men take part in victim-focused and sexual offending-related courses.

The judge paid tribute to the victim in the case, telling her she should be proud of herself and her family should be proud of her. She accepted the young woman may have wished for another outcome in the case, but said she had to take a number of factors into account when passing sentence.

At a previous sentence hearing, a local garda told Maurice Coffey SC, prosecuting, that the victim's mother went to the garda station on the day in question, as her daughter had not come home from a walk to the shops.

The teenage girl was later found in a distressed state. She said she had been bundled into a car by an unknown male, sexually assaulted and then dumped from the vehicle.

The court heard CCTV was retrieved during the investigation, which showed the girl getting into a car with the defendants of her own free will.

She later told gardai during a specialist interview that she arranged to meet the younger boy and got into the car, which was being driven by the older man. The court heard the girl was afraid to tell the truth about arranging to meet the boy due to family and cultural reasons.

The car parked in a lane beside an unoccupied farmhouse and the older man got out, appearing to act as a lookout. The younger boy then got into the back seat beside the girl and asked her to do things which she didn't want to do, the court heard.

She said he started to touch her, then sexually assaulted her by digitally penetrating her vagina.

The second defendant got back into the car and drove it a short distance, as someone had come out from a nearby house. He then got into the back seat beside the girl and also sexually assaulted her by digitally penetrating her vagina.

They eventually let the girl out of the car and she ran home, falling and hurting her knees on the way.

Gardaí were informed and the area was technically examined. The girl was taken to a sexual assault treatment unit, where evidence of recent trauma to her legs and genital area were observed.

A victim impact statement before the court said she continues to suffer from mental health problems as a result of the attack. She no longer socialises and suffers with depression.