Man gets eight years for raping girl,15

A Louth man who raped a 15-year-old family friend has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

The now 23-year-old, who cannot be named to protect his victim’s identity, was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury following a trial earlier this month of rape and defilement of the girl at his home between October 4 and 5, 2014.

The accused has no previous convictions and is maintaining his innocence of the charges.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy was asked to partially suspended the sentence but refused, noting that there were no mitigation factors in favour of the man.

Garda Shane Corrigan told Bernard Condon, prosecuting, that the victim knew the accused man through her family and, on the night in question, there had been some messaged exchanged. He suggested she come to his house to hang out and smoke a joint.

She went up to his bedroom and they kissed on the bed. He then got on top of her and forced his penis into her vagina a number of times as she asked him to stop.

Afterwards, the teenage girl got dressed and he told her if she said anything her father would find out. He offered her a bag of weed for free.

Later in the week, she told her mother and they went to gardaí. She was also examined at a sexual assault treatment unit and a DNA sample of semen in her underwear matched the accused’s profile.

In her victim impact statement, the girl said she had trust issues after the offence and felt there were rumours going around about her. It also affected her schoolwork and sleep.