Jailed for six years for rape of a teenage girl over 40 years ago

by Eimear Dodd

A retired member of the Defence Forces has been jailed for six years for the rape of a teenage girl over 40 years ago.

The now 78-year-old raped the young girl in a bedroom of his home in Westmeath while she was babysitting on an unknown date in 1981.

He pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one count of rape. He cannot be identified to protect the complainant's right to anonymity.

She was aged around 13 or 14 at the time, while the man was in his early 30s. The man has no previous convictions and served in the Defence Forces until his retirement at the age of 60.

Reading her victim impact statement, the injured party said the effects of the rape were “horrendous”.

She said she realised while preparing the statement that she doesn't have happy memories of her childhood. “They were stolen when he raped me”.

She said when the man raped her, she felt his teeth as he kissed her and got the overwhelming smell of alcohol, cigarettes and Old Spice aftershave.

She said he told her not to tell anyone. She said she started getting nightmares not long afterwards and experienced extreme stress, anxiety and trust issues throughout her life.

She said her mental health deteriorated in 2017, she experienced suicidal ideation and was later diagnosed with “severe PTSD due to childhood rape”. The woman said she underwent psychological treatment which continues.

She said the “reality is that rape by [the man] was always a bomb waiting to detonate in my head”.

After hearing the facts yesterday, Tuesday, Mr Justice Paul McDermott adjourned the case overnight to consider sentence.

Today, he handed the man a sentence of eight years with the final two years suspended on strict conditions. The judge said this was a “very serious offence” which was committed against a child.

“He took complete advantage of the situation in which she was left alone with him,” the judge said, noting that the victim was babysitting the man's children in his home at the time of the incident.

“He raped her because he wanted to, knowing she was a child and couldn’t possibly consent to sexual intercourse. He did it because he could,” the judge noted.

He said the man and his wife were “trusted neighbours” and the man abused his position as an adult. The judge said the complainant was “entitled to expect she could trust adults in that house and be safe and secure there”.

Referring to the victim impact statement, the judge noted the “significant and continuing” lifelong consequences for the woman. He said the court had “little doubt [the man] knew exactly what he was doing to this child at the time”.

Mr Justice McDermott said the man had “considerable limited victim awareness” and it was “clear he never gave any thought to the obvious absence of consent from 14-year-old child.”

The judge noted the man said in garda interviews that he felt “hard done by” to be before the court given the passage of time.

He said the value of the man's expressions of remorse had to be placed in the context of his limited victim awareness and “expression of some resentment that he has to face this charge at all as the offence occurred decades ago”.

The judge said the man “still has a way to go to appreciate the full devastation caused to complainant’s life”.

Having set a headline sentence of 11 years, the judge reduced it to eight years to reflect the mitigation including the man's guilty plea, his lack of previous convictions, his age, health issues and that he is assessed at low risk of re-offending.

The judge suspended the final two years of the sentence for two years, directing the man to place himself under the supervision of the Probation Services post-release and to engage in a programme to address sexual offending.

An investigating garda told Sean Guerin SC, prosecuting, during a previous hearing that the man raped the girl in a bedroom of his home while she was babysitting.

A garda investigation began after a referral from the One in Four counselling service in early 2022.

When gardai made the man aware of the allegation later that year, he admitted a single incident of sexual contact, which he described as consensual.

He gave a detailed account of this incident during a voluntary interview with gardai. When he was charged in May 2023, he replied after caution “I only had sex with her once in my house”.

The investigating garda agreed with defence counsel that the man has not come to other garda attention.

Counsel said she is instructed to apologise on behalf of her client. Counsel said the man has several health issues. He has adult children and is a carer for his wife.

A probation report places the man at low risk of reoffending. The man admits he is a heavy drinker, but denies having a dependency on alcohol.

Counsel said the man has developed some awareness of the impact on the victim and asked the court for as much leniency as possible for her client.