A 68-year-old equestrian coach, who groomed a 14-year-old girl by buying her alcohol and horse-riding gear, has been jailed for nine years after he was convicted of raping and sexually assaulting her over a four-month period.
William Connolly of Grasslands, Rathcoursey, Midleton, Co Cork, had denied three counts of rape, two counts of oral rape, four counts of sexual assault and one count of exploitation of a child for the purpose of sexual activity on various dates between August and December 2019.
But the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts on all three counts of rape, one count of oral rape, two counts of sexual assault and the exploitation of a child for the purpose of sexual activity charge after 11 hours and 55 minutes of deliberation.
At the Central Criminal Court in Cork on Friday, Judge Siobhán Lankford said Connolly was guilty of a huge breach of trust as she sentenced him to nine years in jail.
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The judge recalled the evidence of investigating garda Sgt Kieran Crowley who had told how gardaí were alerted when the girl’s mother called to Midleton Garda station after she found two inappropriate texts from Connolly on her daughter’s phone.
The abuse had begun when Connolly was helping her to get up on a pony at the equestrian centre and he digitally penetrated her vagina. Over the next few months, he raped her, orally raped her and sexually assaulted her in his jeep, sometimes after plying her with Bulmers cider.
Crowley had told how Connolly made no admissions when arrested for questioning other than ultimately accepting he sent inappropriate texts, and he denied the girl’s allegations he had raped and assaulted her. He had no previous convictions, said the garda.
The judge praised the teenager for her courage and clarity both in giving evidence and in her victim impact statement in which she had spoken about an overwhelming guilt she felt over reporting Connolly until she was devastated to hear him deny everything at his trial.
“To hear that he accused me of coming on to him, and that all I said was fantasies and lies made me realise that after all this time, I didn’t feel bad any more. I felt proud to be there standing up for myself, and I no longer saw him as the kind man that helped me with the pony.
“I saw him as a rapist and a man who abused me because he knew he had the power over me, and he knew I wouldn’t say anything because I lived to go up to the riding school. I loved that pony, and he never failed to mention how quick that would go away if I told his secret.”
The judge praised the young woman for her resilience and said it was gratifying to hear that she was continuing to enjoy equestrian sports after Connolly had deliberately exploited her love of the sport to enable him to rape and abuse her.
She said she agreed with the Director of Public Prosecution’s view that the case merited a headline sentence of between 10 and 15 years.
She fixed a headline sentence of 11 years as the rapes and sexual assaults were limited to a period of four months, but reduced the term to nine years in light of Connolly’s lack of previous convictions and his heart condition.
However, she said that she saw no grounds for suspending any part of that nine year term given Connolly’s refusal to accept the verdict of the jury and she backdated the sentence to December 17th when Connolly was convicted and taken into custody.
