Man (24) who had a sexual relationship with friend’s underage sister jailed

Sonya McLean

A man who had a sexual relationship with his friend’s underage sister has been jailed for two and a half years.

The 24-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the now 20-year-old woman, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to sexual assault and six charges of defilement, having sexual intercourse with a child under 17 years old, on dates between August 2020 and December 2021. He has no previous convictions.

The woman read her victim impact statement into the record. She said she lost her self-worth from a very young age, “because my innocence was taken away by you”.

She spoke of how she has since suffered with depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and needs to take medication every day.

“You were a trusted person in my family’s life, and you took advantage,” she said. She said she swore that she would not tell anyone what was going on “because you told me not to”.

She said that since she has disclosed what was happening, she has been assured it was not her fault.

Referring to him sexually assaulting her in a housing estate, she said, “You made me feel grown up and mature. You were happy to let a young girl lose her virginity behind bins. That is low.”

She said she is conscious that the man had “a hard life” and said she hopes he gets the help he needs.

“I don’t hate you – I wish you did things differently. I didn’t deserve it,” the woman concluded her statement.

Judge Martin Nolan said that the man knew the age of the injured party and should not have behaved in that way. He acknowledged that he pleaded guilty, has no previous convictions and was unlikely to re-offend in the future.

“They are serious offences, to have a sexual relationship with a child under 17 years old,” Judge Nolan said before he imposed a sentence of two and a half years.

Garda Michelle Smith told Rebecca Smith BL, prosecuting, that the man first had sex with the girl when she was 15 years old, having initially established contact with her over Snapchat. He was a friend of her older brother and was four and a half years older than her.

The man told her not to tell anyone that he made contact with her and asked her to send him intimate photographs of herself, which she did. He asked her if she was a virgin and told her she was mature for her age.

The first time he had sex with the girl, one evening, was in a nearby housing estate. She later told gardaí that while walking there, the man walked ahead “so we could not be seen together”.

She said he asked her if she wanted to have sex, and she replied “yes”. She recalled that it was very sore afterwards.

They had sex five more times, in the kitchen of her home, in the sitting room of her home, in his sister’s apartment, in the home of the family she was babysitting for and finally on Christmas Day in 2021.

That day, he came over to her home, having sneaked in through the back door and had sex with her in the sitting room. That was the final incident.

The following April, she disclosed to a school Chaplain that she had been having unprotected sex with her brother’s friend. Her mother was contacted, and she came to the school. The gardaí were later alerted.

The girl was interviewed by specialist gardaí in May 2022 and outlined the various sexual encounters she had with the man.

The man was later interviewed and admitted that he had asked her for nude photographs. He claimed that he didn’t know her age and that she had never spoken to him about it. He accepted that he had sex with her.

The man told gardaí he never forced her to do anything she didn’t want to do and that it was 100 per cent consensual.

He said things ended when they fell out of contact, and he started a new relationship. He now has a young son.

Gda Smith agreed with Garnet Orange SC defending that his client didn’t deny that the offending took place and was “very accepting that he had sex with her”.

“He now acknowledges that she was under 17 years old and is accepting of his wrongdoing,” counsel told the court.

Mr Orange handed in two affidavits to the court in which the man was described as a hardworking man who is truly sorry for what he has done.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.