A teenager who was raped and sexually assaulted in a forest has told a court that she considered taking her life in the aftermath of the incident involving two youths aged 15 and 17.
A Central Criminal Court jury in January found the two accused, now aged 19 and 17, guilty of six of the eight charges they faced over the July 26th, 2020 incident.
The older accused was convicted of one count of rape, one count of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault. The younger teenager was found guilty of one count of oral rape and one count of sexual assault.
A victim impact statement from the girl was read into evidence at a sentencing hearing in Cork on Friday. In it, she said she developed an eating disorder and became depressed following the ordeal.
“I have been suicidal and I have cut myself. The eating disorder was a way of killing myself slowly, which I wanted to do because of how disgusted I felt because of what was done to me,” she said. “I felt sick in my own body after what happened to me, and I wanted to change my body so they would never look at me the same way again.”
The girl said she had been “happy growing up but that night changed everything”.
“I have had to take prescription drugs to help me cope. I have had to take over 1,000 tablets over the last two years, and I have had 156 hours of counselling.”
Isolated herself
She also indicated that she had left school after the incident, gave up all of her hobbies and isolated herself from most of her friends. “I get up in the day time, starve myself and then take Xanax and sleeping tablets to knock myself out most days so that I don’t have to feel what happened.”
The trial heard that on the night of the rape and sexual assault, the victim had been drinking wine and cider with her best friend and a number of others.
She was contacted by one of the accused, who was in the area, and the girl and her friend met three boys in a clearing in a forest near her home. The trial heard and the older accused had an on-off relationship with him. The third boy remained with the girl’s friend during the incident.
The girl told the trial that her leggings were pulled down and she was raped and sexually assaulted by the older accused and sexually assaulted by the younger defendnat. She recalled asking the older accused “why are letting (the other youth) do this to me?”
Assault continued
Conor Devally SC, prosecuting, said the youths “continued to assault” the girl even after she fell in to a ditch when trying to pull up her leggings.
Mark Nicholas, defence barrister for the older accused, described what had occurred as a “grim business” and said his client accepted the verdict. He said his client had just turned 17 at the time and the incident happened during a period of great tumult and loss in his family.
Seamus Clark SC, for the younger accused, denied a suggestion made by Mr Devally that there was a level of “premeditation” in the defendants’ actions. He said his client now understands the harm his actions had caused.
The defendants were remanded in custody and will be sentenced at a court sitting in Dublin on March 23rd next.