A MAN who was given a suspended prison sentence yesterday for sexual assault is one of several accused in a series of court cases in Co Donegal concerning the same female victim.
Colin Reynolds (27), Highfield, Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, was given a suspended 18-month sentence and ordered to be placed on the sex offenders register after admitting a sex assault on the 12-year-old.
Garda Liam Feeney said Reynolds was 19 at the time of the incident in August 2002. Garda Feeney told the court about a diary of sexual encounters held by the girl and a list of names on a period chart in case she became pregnant. Reynolds’s name was not on either of those lists but it was on a colour-coded list of sexual encounters.
Reynolds, whose wife of three weeks, Sylvia, was in court with him, admitted to Judge Fullam that he had had one “sexual encounter” with the 12-year-old whose age he did know.
He fought back tears as he told the court that his wife, whom he met in February 2003, was sticking by him. “I hope she can get on with her life and forget.”
He recalled an adjourned trial in 2006 when he pleaded not guilty to the charge, along with other accused, but he began to change his mind about his plea after that.
Reynolds continued: “I’m very sorry about it. It was hanging over my wedding. It put a damper on my wedding.”
Later, during a court interval minutes before sentencing, the couple kissed and hugged in the public gallery.
The court was told there were 60 men’s names in the girl’s documents and that she had had sex with 21 of them.
Judge Fullam said he accepted that Reynolds was remorseful over his crime against the girl. He said both parties had since “redeemed” themselves and he did not believe the interests of society would be served if he was sent to jail for one offence out of many committed by others. Gardaí did not believe Reynolds would reoffend.
The judge described the girl’s victim impact statement as “harrowing and very distressing” but he emphasised her life had been transformed for the good as a result of contact with gardaí and the health board, but principally from her own determination to change her life.
The 18-month sentence was suspended for five years and Reynolds will be on the sex offenders register for five years.
Six men have been before the courts for sexual assaults on the girl. A former Army private has served a year of a sentence of two years and three months. Another man was jailed for nine months, last month, and another is awaiting sentence after his conviction by a jury last month.
A man who admitted a single offence is due to be sentenced today and a man who has denied the offences is due for trial in December.