A Dublin man has been jailed for five years for raping and sexually abusing his young cousin.
The 25-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, abused his cousin while visiting his family home. The victim was aged nine or 10 at the time of the abuse, while the accused was 17 or 18.
He was convicted by a jury following a trial in May at the Central Criminal Court of one count of anal rape and five counts of sexual assault at an address in Dublin on various occasions in between 2013 and early 2015.
The man had pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. He has no previous convictions and his lawyers told the court the accused was likely aged 17 when the offending began.
A detective told at a sentence hearing in July that the accused was “treated as one of their own” by the victim’s family and was a regular visitor to their home when in his late teens.
The detective said the defendant would go up to the boy’s bedroom on the pretext of playing a video game and then sexually assault the victim by touching his genitals. During one of these incidents, the defendant stripped the victim of his clothes before pushing him down on the bed and raping him.
‘Didn’t know what to do’
The victim later told specialist garda interviewers that he was in pain and “in shock” after the attack. “I didn’t know what to do,” he said.
He told an older sibling what happened in 2018. The accused was arrested and interviewed by gardaí in 2019 but denied the allegations.
In a victim impact statement, the child’s mother said her son was a “very affectionate” child before the abuse.
“He loved to cuddle up beside you on the chair and watch TV. Around nine to 10 we started to see huge differences. He went into himself and was uncomfortable around people. He very rarely seemed to smile,” she said.
“It’s been years since I had a proper hug off him. I’d hug him but he wouldn’t hug me back any more. He went from being a happy, outgoing child… now he’s so angry all the time.”
Betrayal
She said they put it down to bullying and tried to have it addressed at school.
“We couldn’t believe he’d kept it a secret for five years. How could someone, a family member we welcomed into our home, betray us like that?”
Passing sentence on Friday, Mr Justice Michael White said the victim was “a very courageous young man” who the court hoped would be able to put his ordeal behind him.
The judge said the offences were aggravated by the breach of trust, the victim’s age and the impact on him and his family. He said he took into account the accused’s youth at the time of the offence and his lack of previous convictions when considering sentencing.
Mr Justice White sentenced the man to five years imprisonment. He also ordered him to undergo a year of post release supervision by the Probation Service and explained that breaching this order was a separate criminal offence.