'Younger relatives are not sex toys' for porn addicts: Cork man jailed for raping cousin when a child

The 26-year-old man was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail with the last year suspended on five counts of oral or anal rape and five charges of sexual assault on his cousin at her home and his home over a four-year period. File photo

WARNING: Some readers may find the following report upsetting

Younger cousins are not sex toys to be used for the sexual gratification of older relatives experimenting on the basis of pornography they have viewed online.

Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring made these comments on Tuesday as she jailed a 25-year-old man for raping and sexually assaulting his younger cousin at a time when she was aged six to 10 and he was aged 15 to 19.

The judge commented at the Central Criminal Court in Cork that parents had a particular responsibility as they are the owners of the computers and phones that their children may be using to view pornography.

“To turn a blind eye is to potentially end up in a courtroom with a son or daughter who has abused others,” Ms Justice Ring said. “This is not first case where viewing of pornography led to abuse (where the abuser regarded a younger relative as) a victim that was available to them.

Ms Justice Ring said:

Younger relatives are not sex toys for their experimenting as a result of what they have seen on the screen. They are not playthings for their sexual satisfaction.

In a strongly worded warning, the judge said that to abuse a young relative in a case such as this involved a failure to see the victim as a human being and to view them instead as an object like “a blow-up sex toy”.

The judge warned parents that they had to be vigilant about the use their children were making of online technology. “The onus is on parents and guardians that this is a reality — pornography is available at the click of a computer key and a phone tap,” Ms Justice Ring said.

Ignoring the dangers of pornography use by a young person leading to abuse of a child could result in the devastation of a wider family and a custodial sentence, she said.

Case background

In the present case, the 26-year-old man was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail with the last year suspended on five counts of oral or anal rape and five charges of sexual assault on his cousin at her home and his home over a four-year period.

The judge said that as a 15-year-old the defendant was himself a child when he began to abuse his six-year-old cousin but that it continued until after he became an adult. The abuse began with the touching of the child’s body, outside and inside her clothing, went on to getting her to touch his private parts and then went further again to penetrative sexual acts including oral and anal rape.

He told her she was not allowed to tell anyone but by the age of 11 she did tell. And Ms Justice Ring said it was to the great credit of the injured party who is now 17 that she made this known at the age of 11 while for other people in her situation if could take many years if not a lifetime to reveal.

She first made the complaint of sexual assaults. She later made the complaints of being raped.

The victim said in her impact statement that she had nightmares at the age of 10 about what was happening to her and had “feelings of being worthless for anything except satisfying a man’s sexual needs”. 

The judge said of the teenager: 

She is much more than the abuse caused to her… 

"While her six-year-old self could not stop the abuse her 11-year-old self said what needed to be said, she backed herself and this takes the kind of courage that some people never find.

"She has a bright future. Sexual abuse is part of her life but it should not define her.” 

Accused

As for the accused man, the judge noted that he has Asperger’s and came from a dysfunctional family and accessed pornography from an early age, became addicted to it and he ultimately recognised it as a factor that contributed to his own offending.

Aggravating factors were the significant breach of trust and the fact that some of the abuse took place in the child’s own home destroying home as a place of safety and security for her.

Another aggravating factor was the control of the child and the carrying out of more serious sexual acts as time progressed, which the judge said could not be seen as anything other than grooming the victim where he was relying on the knowledge that she would not tell on him.

Mitigating factors included his plea of guilty, the absence of previous convictions and his apology.

The parties to this case cannot be identified for legal reasons.

- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.