A man who mutilated a six-year-old girl during an aggravated sexual assault to such an extent that she may never be able to have children was sentenced to 12 years in prison, with the final three years suspended, at Galway Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.
Passing sentence, Judge Raymond Groarke directed that the 27-year-old accused, who is a cousin of the child's mother, is to be supervised by the Probation Service on his release from prison for a further 10 years in an effort to reduce his risk of reoffending. He also placed him on the Sex Offenders Register for life.
The court heard that the girl had to undergo reconstructive surgery to her genital area following the assault, which took place on May 10th last year. The accused had told a psychiatrist he carried out the sexual attack because he "wanted" the child.
Evidence was first heard in the case last July and at that time the accused, who is a member of the Traveller community and who may not be named for legal reasons, had asked the prison authorities while on remand at Castlerea Prison for protection following alleged threats from other Traveller inmates.
Medical reports handed into court in July from Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, outlined the extensive damage suffered by the child and said she had been left with a post-operative colostomy bag.
The accused had pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the girl near a Traveller encampment between 9pm and 11pm on May 10th last year. He pleaded guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to the child and to falsely imprisoning her on the same occasion.
Det Sgt Michael O'Driscoll gave evidence that on the day the assault took place, the accused had been drinking all day with his cousins at the encampment. Later that night, he went to one of the caravans where up to six children were sleeping and took the victim out of bed. He brought her down a bog road nearby and assaulted her there.
The surgeon's report stated it was difficult to comment on the long-term physical damage and that incontinence to some degree would not be uncommon, requiring future surgery.
Judge Groarke noted yesterday from other reports handed into court that the child was physically and psychologically damaged for life and her capacity to have children when she grows up is questionable. He said a report for consultant forensic psychiatrist Sally Linehan, from the Central Mental Hospital, stated that the risk of the accused reoffending was "not insignificant".
The judge said the case before him was about as dreadful as he was ever likely to deal with and the fact the infant had been taken from her bed by a sexual predator, and had been mutilated down a laneway, put it at the extreme end of human conduct.
He had never contemplated a life sentence in any other case, but he had reason to do so now for the purpose of seeing that this man did not do this to somebody else.
"Physically, this child required reconstructive surgery and she is physically damaged for life. Her capacity to have children is questionable and psychologically this child will never be the same again."
He noted that while the child was receiving a high level of support from her aunt, her prognosis would remain guarded and she would likely suffer from psychological as well as physical symptoms.
Hearing that the maximum sentence for the sexual assault of a child was 14 years, the judge said he was required by law to give the accused reason to hope, and the only mitigating factor was that he had pleaded guilty and thereby saved the child the further trauma of having to give evidence. He accepted that the accused had come from an atrocious background and that he had been sexually assaulted himself when he was young.
Leave to appeal the sentence was refused.