An Ennis teenager warned a 14-year old girl that he would pull her mother down a lane where she would be found dead if the girl did not have sex with him.
In the case at Ennis Circuit Court, the teen has pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual intercourse with the girl on three separate occasions at his address.
The accused, aged 16 or 17 at the time, has admitted having sex with the girl on three dates between December 1st, 2014 and July 31st, 2015 contrary to Section 2 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006.
The victim was 14 at the time and is now 17.
In a Garda interview, the accused denied that he had issued a threat of violence against the girl’s mother if the girl didn’t have sex with him.
In reply, the teen said: “Who am I? Larry Murphy? I didn’t threaten her. If that was the case, why didn’t she finish it ages ago?”
Counsel for the teen, Padraig Dwyer SC, told the court: “That name, Larry Murphy became a household name – he was a serious, violent rapist whose case made national headlines for a period of time.”
In her victim impact statement delivered by counsel for the State Philip Rahn BL, the girl said, “Since this has happened to me, I always find that I have to look over my shoulder – I don’t feel confident any more”.
She said: “I find it hard to trust new people. This makes it hard to make new friends. It changed my family’s life and my life. We moved far away, isolating me.”
She added: “It affected my sleep. I had bad dreams. I just felt sad all the time. I didn’t want to do anything or go anywhere. Staying in bed. I lost all motivation.”
In her statement of complaint to Garda Síochána, the girl said that after the teenage boy made the “lane” threat about her mother, “I didn’t like him saying this and I felt like he would do something to my mother and I gave in”.
The two were in a relationship at the time and they had sex after the boy made his threat. This was the second time that the two had sex and the first time they had intercourse followed a previous threat that the boy had made about the girl’s mother.
The girl said that the two met through Facebook.
The accused denied making the specific threats about the girl’s mother in the Garda interview.
The victim in the case was due to give evidence in the case via video link last month as the accused – now 19 – was denying there was any coercion used and that the sex was consensual.
However, before the girl was due to give evidence, Mr Dwyer SC said that his client didn’t want to put the girl through the stress and trouble of having to give evidence.
On behalf of his client, Mr Dwyer that his client has pleaded guilty but in terms of his culpability was only 16 at the time when the relationship commenced.
Mr Dwyer said: “The teenager was under an apprehension that what he was doing wasn’t wrong . . . Obviously, now, my client wants to apologise and regrets engaging in unlawful conduct.”
Judge Gerald Keys has adjourned the case to April 10th for sentence and remanded the accused in custody for the preparation of a probation report.
