Teenager left 'catatonic' as a result of defendant's abuse, court hears

The Central Criminal Court in Dublin, where the victim impact statement and further evidence was heard. File picture

A mother has said her son was “frozen and locked” in his body as a result of being raped as a young teenager by a now 51-year-old man.

She said her son, who had mild autism when the abuse happened, was diagnosed in 2023 as “catatonic”, unable to carry out the “most basic” of everyday functions.

She said psychiatrists believe her son’s memory is “wiped clean every two days” in an attempt by his brain to cope with the pain.

The defendant, from Co Offaly, pleaded guilty last December to four representative charges of rape out of nine sample counts, dating back to 2018, when the boy was 13.

The Central Criminal Court heard the victim impact statement as well as evidence from an arresting garda and the boy’s lead therapist.

Because of the victim’s condition, his mother provided the victim impact statement.

The mother said her son, now aged 19, behaves like a three or four year old. She told Ms Justice Caroline Biggs that before the catatonia, her son was “bright and compassionate”.

Though he had a mild general-learning difficulty and mild autism, she said he “excelled” in many areas.

She showed the judge items demonstrating previous successes of her son, the first a trophy for winning a chess competition. Second, she presented a bunch of books, reflecting his love of reading.

She said he had a talent for arts and design and completed a Leaving Cert Applied.

But she said her son’s condition dramatically regressed in 2023 as tensions and stress around the approaching trial resulted in him reliving the abuse and being “retraumatised”.

Psychiatrists explain that my son’s memory is wiped clean every two days in an attempt to cope with pain, to protect himself.

She said the catatonia is a “coping mechanism” to withdraw from the “pain, torture and unimaginable abuse”.

She said he was mute for almost a year and now can only speak very slowly. She said her son has defecated and urinated on himself, and now wears nappies.

“His current state sees him needing 24-hour around-the-clock care,” she said.

Breege Maxwell, director of the Alder’s Unit in Tallaght Hospital, which sees children who have been sexually abused, said she started seeing the boy in 2019.

She said that gradually, as trust was built, he “engaged in discourse” and “chit chat” and, at times, was able to talk about the abuse.

Ms Maxwell said that after the catatonia emerged in mid-2023 he “didn’t speak at all” for a while and that later on was “quite monosyllabic”.

She said, more recently, there had been a slight improvement, but that there was “a level of fragility” there and that he needed people around him to ensure he was not exposed further to trauma or triggers.

The arresting garda said that when she went to the defendant’s house and entered his bedroom, where the abuse had happened, it was “squalor”. She said it was “very dirty” and “very gloomy” and damp.

She said the defendant offered a “reward system” to the boy for the abuse, such as gaining access to a PlayStation 4.

Senior counsel Conor Devally, prosecuting, told Ms Justice Biggs that he contends the severity of the abuse to be “the most extreme or exceptional”.

John Shortt SC, defending, said he would be making a case for mitigation and presenting the court with recent case laws in addition to concerns regarding the nature of the diagnosis of catatonia.