A Kilkenny man who claimed he was in a consensual sexual relationship with his younger cousin has been sentenced to 10 years for rape and sexual assault of the then 14-year-old.
The man (48), who cannot be named to protect the identity of the now 32-year-old victim, was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury last month of 15 counts of rape and oral rape and one charge of sexual assault following a trial.
The abuse started when the victim was 14 and and living with his 30-year-old cousin in Kilkenny.
The victim told gardaí he was first raped by the man after he came into his bedroom one night and threatened to shoot both him and his father if he told anyone about “what was about to happen” before raping the teenager.
He raped him in a similar way a few nights later, punching the boy on the back of the head after the incident.
The man told gardaí when arrested that there was a consensual sexual relationship between them when the teenager turned 16, having initially denied any inappropriate contact.
“I was lonely and stuck with him,” he told officers. He said he suggested to the victim “we might as well be having sex from what everyone is saying”.
He claimed the teenager “more or less offered it to me”.
“I know it was wrong. I had a right to go somewhere and look for a woman. We got on too well and that’s what led us down that road,” he said in interview.
He told gardaí that the teenager had had a hard life and he felt sorry for him before he admitted that they had sexual contact roughly two or three times per week for over three years.
Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy imposed a 10 year sentence with the final year suspended. She also ordered that he undergo alcohol treatment on his release and have no contact with the victim in perpetuity.
The victim left the home they shared as an 18-year-old after the man punched him and he returned the punch sending his cousin over the back of the couch.
The victim was encouraged by his then partner to make a complaint to gardaí which he did in March 2008 and the man was arrested in December 2009.
A victim impact report stated that the man found it difficult to trust people and blamed his mother for leaving him in the care of his father.
He said people in the local community knew what had happened him as young child and turned a blind eye.
“I was afraid to be happy,” he said before he added that “thanks to him, I am on anti-depression tablets for what I presume will be the rest of my life”.