A Circuit Court judge yesterday suspended an 11-month sentence imposed on a 19-year-old man in the District Court last July for having consensual sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend last year.
The judge also bound the man to keep the peace for 12 months.
At the initial hearing of the appeal last week against the severity of the sentence handed down in the District Court, Judge Raymond Groarke asked why charges had not been brought against the girl, remarking that she was a conspirator in the commission of an indictable crime, namely statutory rape or underage sex.
The accused man, who has just turned 21, and who cannot be identified in order to protect his girlfriend's identity, had pleaded guilty at Tuam District Court to four counts of statutory rape and had been sentenced to 11 months in prison on each count, to run concurrently.
The appeal hearing heard last week that the young lovers are now living together with the accused man's mother. The girl, who is sitting her Leaving Certificate, gave birth to a baby boy last January.
Det Sgt Michael O'Driscoll told the court last week the girl had started mitching school to meet her lover when she was 15. When her parents found out about the liaison in May 2004, they brought the girl to Tuam Garda station to make a complaint against the accused.
She continued to see the youth and had his baby last January.
Judge Raymond Groarke wondered why charges had not been brought against the girl. "She was part of a conspiracy to commit an indictable crime, was she not?" he asked.
Defence barrister Paul McGettigan said it was an unusual case in that the mothers of the couple were in court and were supportive of the situation. He said the girl's mother did not want to see the accused going to prison.
"Even though he raped her daughter-in-law?" Judge Groarke remarked. The judge asked Mr McGettigan how he should approach sentencing in a way that would act as a deterrent.
Mr McGettigan said such behaviour was now "rampant" in society and society no longer wondered at it. He suggested that perhaps the law should be changed. This case, he added, presented a most unusual set of circumstances in that the couple were still together and it had not been "a one-night stand".
Judge Groarke said 15-year-old girls should not be regarded as targets. "Perhaps it is time courts started jailing young men who behave in this fashion and maybe young ladies too," the judge observed.
Suspending the sentences yesterday for 12 months, Judge Groarke also bound the young man to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for the same period on his own bond of €100.
"I have determined to suspend the sentences imposed in the District Court on condition that the accused keep the peace and be of good behaviour for 12 months, in the sum of €100," the judge said.