A teenage boy will spend 15 months in Oberstown detention centre for the sexual assault and rape of a 13-year-old girl he had been dating for a number of weeks.
The now 16-year-old boy was convicted after a trial at the Central Criminal Court to three charges of oral rape and one of rape of the then 13-year-old girl on dates between June and July 2023.
The incidents occurred in a Co Galway housing estate where both children were living with their families. The boy was 14 years old at the time.
He had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court. He does not accept the jury verdicts and continues to deny the offending, defending counsel John Berry SC told the court.
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At a previous hearing, counsel outlined that his client had access to a smartphone from a young age with no restrictions, resulting in part from the overwhelming special needs of his siblings.
Asked if in her experience this unrestricted use of smartphones was an increasing aspect of juvenile offending, Detective Garda Sharon Noone agreed and said “it’s something we would be highly against anyway”.
Passing sentence on Friday, Mr Justice Patrick McGrath said there was considerable mitigation available in this case, such as the defendant’s young age at the time of the offence and his age now, as well as the effect it will have on his family.
The judge said that in the probation report before the court, the defendant acknowledged that he had watched porn at a very early age and that this was where his sexual knowledge came from. The judge said, “It is another example of how this technology, which is designed to enhance our lives, is damaging young people’s personal and sexual development.”
Judge McGrath sentenced the boy to three years in detention but suspended the final 21 months on strict conditions. He placed the boy under the supervision of the Probation Service for three years post-release and instructed the boy to carry out all directions deemed necessary by the Probation Service or any other agency acting on their behalf. He placed the boy on the sex offenders’ register for three years.
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The judge also ordered that the boy have no contact whatsoever with the injured party
Dt Gda Noone told Anne Rowland SC, prosecuting, that the offending came to light when the girl texted her mother via Snapchat that the boy had raped her.
The girl would go to the boy’s house, and they would hang out in his bedroom, where she would play with her phone, and he would be on his computer. The girl told gardaí that one day he got on top of her and said he wanted her to “give him head”, but she said no and started crying.
She said he forced her head down on his penis then. She believed it would be a one-off event and returned to his house the next day, but he orally raped her again, and this time he forced her to swallow.
On the third separate occasion, he orally raped the girl before vaginally raping her. She told him she didn’t want to do it, and he kept saying to her, “It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s just one time.”
The girl told gardaí that after the rape, she was very upset. A forensic medical examination showed bruising on the inner thigh indicative of “finger tip trauma” and bruising inside the genitals caused by “blunt force trauma” and consistent with reports of “painful penetration”.
The trial heard that the boy told gardaí he “never” asked the girl for sex and denied all of the allegations. When asked if he had ever had sex with the girl, the boy replied, “No, never, and I never plan to.”
