Cork court hears man asked 'what happens when she is 18?' when told to stay away from rape victim
The accused, who cannot be identified, was remanded in custody for sentencing on May 20 by Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford. File picture: Larry Cummins
A now convicted paedophile rapist was warned by an investigating detective before Friday’s convictions to stay away from one of his teenage victims but the 63-year-old asked: “What happens when she is 18?”
The sports coach from Kerry was found guilty on Friday afternoon by the unanimous decision of a jury of seven men and five women at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork, of raping one girl three times, orally raping her nine times and sexually assaulting her nine times, and sexually assaulting the second victim nine times.
They were aged from 15 to 17 at the time of the sexual crimes against them.
The accused, who cannot be identified, was remanded in custody for sentencing on May 20 by Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford.
In her closing speech to the jury, prosecution senior counsel Anne Rowland said of the question the coach had for the detective when warned to stay away from one young victim that it took some gall to ask that question in the circumstances of the case.
Disturbing evidence was given of the control exercised by the coach over his victims as his sexual crimes escalated from sexual assaults in the form of touching to digital penetration of the girls' private parts, getting the child to give him ‘hand-jobs’, rape and oral rape.
His ex-wife gave evidence that when they were still together as husband and wife she saw how he would always fixate on one girl and even flirt with the child in front of his wife, as well as touching her shoulders and backside.
One victim said he used to shout at her and that if she made mistakes in the sport “he would call you the biggest c***, the biggest bitch”, when she was 11 or 12 years old.
Ms Rowland said in her closing speech to the jury: “Sometimes even in a shop he would touch her backside. He did it in front of his wife — she told you. In a car park of church he made her give him a blow job.
"He would say to her, ‘There are no no’s. If you don’t do this you are going to lose your spot.’ He made her give him a blow job. If she did not, she would lose everything. She said, ‘I was told I could not say no to anything’.
“As she said, ‘I kind of gave up, like. I knew it was going to happen so I did not say no.’.. He is her trainer, he holds her future in his hands, he uses his authority over her to carry out sexual assaults and rapes,” Ms Rowland said.
The senior counsel asked the jury to consider the attitude of the accused man — who was more than 40 years older than the two girls when the crimes were committed five to six years ago.
In particular, Ms Rowland ask them to consider his response when gardaí told him to stay away from one of them. He replied to the garda: “What happens when she is 18?” Ms Rowland said that it took some gall for the accused man to ask that question in the circumstances.
The defendant’s ex-wife said that when she was still with him he would become fixated on one girl and that even in her company he would flirt with the girl, put his hand on her shoulders and on her bottom, in his wife’s presence.
Ms Rowland said, “Everything in the case points to (defendant) exercising complete control over her and driving a wedge between her and her family.”
The second victim said the defendant roared and shouted during training as well as giving her hugs and slapping her backside and on occasions touching her breasts, and on one occasion he pulled her head over on to his lap.
He booked a room for himself and the complainant to stay in during one sporting fixture that was taking place a long way from home. Her mother would not allow this and the girl stayed elsewhere.
During that weekend he ‘cold-shouldered’ her and did not talk to her. And on their return he said he was dropping her from the higher level of the sport and that he was fed up with her “crying around the place”.
Ms Rowland commented: “He is getting revenge on her and her mother for not allowing him to stay in a room together (the previous weekend).”
The prosecution senior counsel said this was in keeping with the first victim’s perception that if she was not compliant in every way with the defendant he would drop her in the sport.
Defence senior counsel, Ray Boland, said the defendant did not have to prove a case and that this was a matter for the prosecution. However, he said there was reasonable doubt that enabled the jury to find him not guilty on all counts.
Mr Boland said they could walk away from the trial after delivering their verdicts but that if they found him guilty he would be forever a convicted rapist and paedophile.
Victim impact evidence will be given at the sentencing hearing on May 20.
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