Man (22) jailed for ‘horrendous’ abuse of his young cousin

A man who repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted his cousin when she was aged between five and nine, has been jailed at the Central Criminal Court.

Mr Justice Michael White condemned the “particularly severe and horrendous” nature of the abuse as he sentenced the 22-year-old to 10 years in prison with the final two years suspended.

The man pleaded guilty to six charges including rape, oral rape, anal rape and sexual assault on dates between November 1st, 2011 and June 26th, 2016, in his Co Cork home. He has no previous convictions.

Mr Justice White said the man’s crimes had had a “devastating impact” on the girl and that the close bond that previously existed between the two families had been shattered.

“He was a favoured first cousin. There was great trust placed in him by the girl’s parents,” the judge said. “This was totally unexpected and out of the blue. It goes without saying that this has had a devastating impact on her. The court hopes that she can recover in time.”

The judge set a headline sentence of 14 years but gave the man credit for his guilty plea despite it coming late in the day. Other mitigating factors included the man’s youth, his mental health difficulties and social isolation.

‘In the wrong’

The girl, now 12, previously expressed a wish to have her cousin identified in the reporting of the case as she wanted people to know he was “in the wrong”.

Alice Fawsitt SC, prosecuting, said her instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions were that it would not be in the girl’s best interests to have the rapist named.

Mr Justice White said he appreciated the girl was angry and paid tribute to her courage in disclosing “these horrific crimes”. But he said the court also had “a wider duty to ensure that the identity of an injured party would be protected”.

The girl was first abused when she was five and she ultimately told her mother about it when she was nine. The accused was aged between 15 and 19 at the time.

During the abuse, the teenager raped his cousin vaginally and anally, forced her to perform oral sex on him, performed oral sex on her and used a wand she had been gifted to abuse her. He also drank the child’s urine.

Earlier, the child’s mother read a victim impact statement into the record on behalf of herself, her husband and her daughter, in order to “convey the damage to our daughter and our family”.

“She was thrilled when she got a present of that wand, little knowing that within hours it would be inserted into her body to abuse her.”

‘Fell apart’

The woman described her daughter’s “courage and bravery to tell us what was happening,” adding that “our lives fell apart” on learning what had happened.

She said her daughter had to be tested for a sexually-transmitted infection at the age of nine. “I just wanted to lie down and die so the pain would stop. I could not do this because my other children and my husband needed my support,” the woman continued.

The woman said she lost “years of hugs and cuddles” because her daughter would freeze up. She said her other children’s little sister, “their little ray of sunshine” who had been funny, witty, outgoing and “huggy” had gone.

“The light had gone from her,” she said, before describing the girl as now being “anxious, distrustful and awkward around affection”.

The child said in the victim impact statement that relatives of her cousin were not talking to her. “It makes it look like I did something wrong,” she said.

The accused was ordered to abide by directions of the Probation Service for two years on release and attend any rehabilitation programmes as directed.