A man has been jailed for five years by the Central Criminal Court for raping his partner's younger sister after a night of heavy drinking. Mr Justice Carney suspended the final year of the sentence, taking into account his early plea of guilty which, he said, freed up the court for another case.
Sgt Pius McSweeney said the defendant told gardaí he knew the girl was just 15 and did not consent but said he had a lot of drink taken that night. The judge said it seemed a sanitised version of events had been presented in court but he was obliged to deal with matters as proved to him in evidence and not anything read elsewhere. The 29- year-old Louth man pleaded guilty to one count of raping the girl at his home in November 2001.
Sgt McSweeney told Mr Michael Counihan SC, prosecuting, that the girl and her younger sister were babysitting for their older sister while she went out with the defendant. When they returned, he and the older sister went to bed but he got up again and went downstairs to where the victim was watching television. He forced her to remove her clothing by threatening he would stab everybody in the house. He then removed his own clothing and raped her.
The girl's sister called a taxi for her to take her home afterwards and she went to gardaí with her father the following day.
Garda Leah Brady said the girl was traumatised that night and the following day when she made her statement to gardaí. She had said in her victim impact statement that she had difficulty in school as it was mixed and she felt uncomfortable in the presence of boys.