Teen who raped girl at disco jailed for 3 years

A Donegal man has been jailed for three years for the rape of a 14-year-old girl at a teenage disco when he was 15 years old.

A trial at the Central Criminal Court heard that the man, now aged 20, pushed the girl into the ladies toilets and raped her in a cubicle.

The pair were seen kissing shortly before their friends had encouraged her to “meet”, or kiss him, during the youth disco.

Lawyers for the man put it to the victim that the couple were “shifting” at the disco and had gone to the toilet for privacy where “they were fondling and it got out of hand”.

The woman repeatedly denied this version of events.

After the verdict the man, who cannot be named to protect the victim’s anonymity, said he realised he should not have done what he did.

He had pleaded not guilty to rape and sexual assault of the girl at a nightclub in a Co Donegal town on December 23, 2010.

Last January a jury returned the unanimous verdicts of guilty on both charges after deliberating for just over two hours. After the verdict Ms Justice Margaret Heneghan ordered the man undergo an assessment by the Probation Services.

Peter Nolan, defending, told the court during this assessment the man had said he was wrong and should not have tried to have sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old.

In sentencing him, Ms Justice Heneghan said that she had to consider the gravity of the offence and the lack of any expression of remorse.

She also noted, by way of mitigating factors, that he was a minor at the time of the rape.