Man who abused boy jailed for three years
Michael McKenna, aged 34, of Backlane Hostel, Christchurch, Dublin, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault and one of false imprisonment of the child at a Dublin address in February 25, 2011.
Judge Martin Nolan granted an application at the request of the child’s parents to lift reporting restrictions in relation to McKenna so he could be named in the media.
The parents and family members of the child wept as Detective Sergeant Kevin Duggan detailed the horrific nature of the assaults.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard McKenna, a British national, had lived here for only 18 months prior to the offences.
Det Sgt Duggan said the child was playing football on his own at the front of his house when he was approached by McKenna who asked him to pass the ball.
McKenna then invited the child to a nearby property promising him an opportunity to play a newly released Playstation game. The child told McKenna he would need to ask his parents permission but McKenna said he “didn’t need to”.
The child then accompanied McKenna back to the house where McKenna brought him to an upstairs bedroom.
McKenna removed the child’s trousers and pushed him on the bed and began kissing him on the mouth and face before putting his mouth on the child’s penis.
The child was crying and pleaded with McKenna to stop and to let him go home to which McKenna repeatedly replied “10 minutes”.
McKenna then removed his trousers and exposed his penis to the child. The child, who was standing up and crying loudly, pushed McKenna away.
Det Sgt Duggan said the man then became concerned that another tenant in the house would hear the child’s cries and brought him downstairs to a laundry room and assaulted him again in the same manner.
Before allowing the child to leave, McKenna warned him not to tell his parents.
As the child made his way home, he encountered a group of his friends and told an older child what had happened.
The child’s father was informed and immediately contacted gardaí.
The victim’s father then went to the house where he believed the accused to be but McKenna had fled.
Gardaí found McKenna asleep in the back of a truck at 2.25am the following morning and arrested him.
McKenna initially denied the charges and only when confronted with the child’s statement did he make limited admissions of his guilt to gardaí.
During his second interview, McKenna made some admissions.
Judge Nolan said McKenna had encountered his victim “innocently playing football” and had stolen that innocence in a “particularly gross way”.
“It’s hard to imagine how much the child’s parents have suffered and I’m sure it’s hard to have much forgiveness.”
The child’s parents wept as Judge Nolan jailed McKenna for three years.
