'It has left you with a mark' judge tells teenage boy who defiled a 12-year-old girl

A High Court judge has told a teenage boy who admits defiling a 12-year-old girl that he felt angry and frustrated by the way in which the victim, who is a vulnerable child, was humiliated.

A High Court judge has told a teenage boy who admits defiling a 12 year old girl that he is angry and frustrated by the way in which the victim was humiliated.

The 17-year-old and a co-accused, now aged 20, both from Dublin, have both pleaded guilty to engaging in a sexual act with a child under the age of 15 at a place in the county on August 25, 2015.

The older boy has also pleaded guilty to engaging in a sexual act with the same girl on August 21, 2015 at a different location.

The Central Criminal Court heard that a group of boys took photos while the older boy, then aged 16, forced the girl to give him oral sex. Four days later she met this older boy again and he again forced her to perform oral sex on him.

He then told the girl that she had to “give a blowjob” to the younger boy or else he would show the pictures of the earlier sexual activity to others.

The victim told gardaí she felt she had to do it. She said she was shaking and couldn't stop shaking while she was forced to perform the sexual act, the court heard.

This lasted for about 10 seconds before the girl ran off. Lawyers for this boy told the court that he himself was in fear of the older boy.

He had his hands down by his side during the incident and did not touch the girl or say anything to her, Roisin Lacey SC said. She said the incident was a once-off act which was stage-managed by the older boy.

She said that the older boy had asked her client “are you going to be gay?” meaning was he afraid. Her client believed there would be adverse postings about him on social media, she said.

She said her client had just turned 14 himself and believed the victim was also 14 years old.

Ms Lacey said a Probation Service report noted that he had little understanding of the concept of consent, and didn't realise the victim and he himself were both too young to consent.

She said he bitterly regretted his actions and was offering an unreserved apology to the victim.

The report shows that he had displayed a considerable extent of victim awareness and of the harm to her psychological well being and her reputation, counsel said.

“He accepts he should have stood up to peer pressure to an older and more streetwise boy and should have done the right thing,” she said.

Mr Justice Michael White said he will sentence the younger boy on August 12. He told the boy that what he did was nasty and that he should have stood up for himself.

“It's an awful thing to do. You should always stand up if somebody tells you to do something wrong,” he said.

You have this for the rest of your life. It has left you with a mark.

He said he felt angry and frustrated by the way in which the victim, who is a vulnerable child, was humiliated.

He praised the courage of the victim in giving her own victim impact statement to the court. In her statement, the girl said after the defendants abused her she was changed completely.

Mr Justice White adjourned sentencing of the older accused to October 9 next. This accused cannot be identified in order to protect the anonymity of the complainant.

The younger defendant cannot be identified because he is a juvenile.

ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE

The victim told the court that before these incidents she was flourishing with confidence and had lots of hopes and dreams.

After they abused me, it totally changed me. They took away my independence.

She added that fear has taken her over now.

She quit doing a lot of sporting and social activities which she had enjoyed because of a fear of seeing the boys and said she was threatened by members of their family.

She has had suicidal thoughts and has self-harmed. She described being hospitalised from an overdose of tablets which she swallowed after seeing one of the boys and becoming upset.

She said she was in such fear of bullying that she started to carry a knife with her when going out.

She said she is hoping to get on with her life and is looking forward to doing her Leaving Cert exam.

Detective Garda David Jennings told Anne Marie Lawlor SC, prosecuting, that the victim had been in contact with the older boy on Facebook and they agreed to meet.

He said they met in a field where the boy was with other boys. The court heard she was dragged and pushed over to the edge of the field.

She told gardaí she had a gut feeling that something bad would happen but ignored her gut feeling.

The boy put his hands over her and on her legs and she felt uncomfortable. She made her kneel down and was manipulating her head and making her perform a sexual act on him.

She said this continued for some time and she felt really dirty. She said some of the other boys were taking photographs and they showed her some of them.

The younger accused was in this group but did not take any photos.

The victim said you could see her face and this showed her “giving a blowjob”, the court heard. She felt horrible that others would see the image and she would get a name for herself.