Sex offender gets 18 years for rape and abuse

A convicted sex offender has been sentenced to 18 years for raping a boy and sexually abusing another child 20 years later.

Associates of the victims told Kenneth Cooke, aged 53, to “enjoy his time in prison” and to “rot in there” as he was led away. He is already serving a nine-year sentence imposed in 2014 for the sexual abuse of a female victim 20 years ago.

Cooke, of Limekiln Green, Walkinstown, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 21 counts of sexually assaulting a boy between January 2000 and July 2003 when the boy was aged between 11 and 13 .

He had pleaded not guilty to 56 counts of indecent assault of another boy between December 1980 and December 1985 and was convicted by a jury.

Yesterday, Judge Patricia Ryan imposed a nine-year sentence with four suspended for abuse of the boy which began in 1980. She also imposed an 11-year sentence with two suspended for the abuse of the second boy 13 years ago. These will run consecutive to each other but alongside his existing sentence, meaning an effective prison term of 14 years.

Judge Ryan took the unusual move of imposing consecutive terms because of the “very, very, very serious” nature of the offending.

She noted that the abuse of the boy in the 1980s began when the nine-year-old victim was in a very vulnerable state after suffering a family tragedy. It involved molesting the boy before moving on to anally raping him.

Cooke finally stopped abusing him when the boy got strong enough to fight him off.

A local garda told Róisín Lacey, prosecuting, that the victim contacted gardaí in 2014 and Cooke was arrested in July 2014. He denied all the allegations and told gardaí the victim was “telling lies, a pack of filthy Jesus lies”.

In a victim impact statement, the victim said in order to survive he tried to “block everything out” but this meant he also blocked out his happy childhood memories. “They are ruined, damaged and gone because of this horrific demon,” he said.

“It will always stay with me. I have survived, lived, to get justice for that vulnerable little boy,” he said.

In 2000, Cooke began abusing another child he had access to who was in fifth class.

The abuse ended in 2003 when the boy used his woodworking skills to fashion a lock for his door to keep Cooke out. The victim did not tell anyone about the abuse until he made a formal complaint to gardaí last year. When questioned, Cooke initially denied the allegation, saying the boy was a “loner with no friends”. He now wished to convey an apology to his victim, Tara Burns, defending, said.

Ms Burns said Cooke was supported by family , including a wife and four-year-old child. He was in poor health and had a stroke recently.