A 16-year-old youth tried to rape his mother last September and then sent a text message to her at Christmas threatening to kill her because she had complained to gardaí, Galway Circuit Criminal Court heard yesterday.
The youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to assaulting his mother with intent to rape her on September 16th last year in a house in Co Galway.
Det Sgt Michael O'Driscoll gave evidence that the accused pinned his mother on to his bed for almost 45 minutes and tried to rape her but she resisted his assault and managed to escape.
She locked herself into a bathroom but when she came out again after he told her he was sorry and that she could come out, he again tried to drag her into his bedroom to continue the assault. The woman fled downstairs and rang her sister for help.
Det Sgt O'Driscoll told Judge Raymond Groarke that the youth had been out drinking with friends at a nightclub before he came home at 2am. He asked his mother to help him to his bedroom upstairs.
He told his mother he was going to get sick and she ran downstairs to get a basin. When she went back upstairs, he had undressed, wearing just his underpants. He dragged his mother on to the bed, jumped on top of her and tried to take her clothes off.
Defence counsel Bernard Madden SC said a curious feature of the case was that he was unable to find a psychiatrist, either in Co Galway or Co Mayo, who was willing to take the case on and assess his client. "They told my solicitor that they either didn't have the time or weren't interested," Mr Madden told the court.
Mr Madden said that the HSE, which was actively involved in the case, had employed the services of a forensic psychologist from the UK to carry out an assessment of the accused. He said that he had received that psychologist's report but felt a psychiatrist's report would be more beneficial in assisting the court's approach to sentencing.
Judge Groarke agreed, saying he wanted to know why the youth had behaved in such a way towards his mother and how he could make sure it didn't happen again.
The judge described it as "an extraordinary offence" during which the woman was terrified. He observed the accused had been terrorising both of his parents and it had progressed to the stage where he wanted to terrorise his mother sexually. "His mother is right in what she says - jail was not the answer. It's treatment he needs," the judge said.
Judge Groarke told the youth that he was tempted to "lock him up and throw away the key". However, he said, he could not do that but if he was given one good reason until such time as a psychiatrist's report was available, he would do it.
"If you step out of line with your mother, I will tear up all the reports before me and lock you up for as long as I can", the judge warned him.
Ordering him not to have any contact whatsoever with his mother unless invited to do so by phone, Judge Groarke adjourned sentencing to Michaelmas term for the preparation of a psychiatrist's report.
Det Sgt O'Driscoll said that there had been marital difficulties in the home and the woman was in the process of separating from her husband.
He said the couple had two sons and from an early age their father had been very strict in disciplining them. He suggested what was happening now may be as a result of how they were treated by their father when younger. Gardaí had been called to the family home on numerous occasions as both parents complained they were now being assaulted and intimidated by the accused and his younger brother.
Det Sgt O'Driscoll said the accused had sent a text message to his mother's phone last Christmas which said "Mam, I'll get you. I'll kill you stone f. . .ing cold".
Expressing his concern about the accused, Det Sgt O'Driscoll said, "When I talk to him [ the youth] it's not like having a conversation with a teenager. It's like talking to a 50-year-old man."
The father, he said, was now living elsewhere with the accused youth, while the mother was living with her other son.
He added the youth before the court had attempted suicide on a number of occasions and he had been receiving counselling.
The mother said she did not want to see her son go to prison, stating that he needed "major" help and counselling.