Sexual attacker jailed for assaulting teenage girls as they slept

A 24-year-old man has been jailed for three years after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two teenage girls.

Christopher Twohig, of Banteer West, in Co Cork, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in 2011, when he was 18 or 19, and to sexually assaulting a 19-year-old girl three years later.

He sexually assaulted his first victim as she slept on a sofa. When she realised what was happening the girl pretended to still be asleep, as she was afraid that Twohig would get angry if he knew she had woken up. Eventually she pretended to wake up; Twohig stopped and left the house.

The young woman told Cork Circuit Criminal Court in a victim-impact statement that she blamed herself for years for allowing the assault to happen but she was too young to understand what happened to her.

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“He saw me as dirt and used me for his own benefit. This challenged my relationship with my family and every other relationship I ever had,” she said. “I felt guilt and anger – guilt and anger because I had let this incident set me back in life. I struggled immensely in school and college. I was damaged and just something for people to use.”

Twohig also assaulted his second victim as she slept.

He admitted both incidents when the Garda questioned him, and expressed remorse in court. His barrister said Twohig, a graduate who had planned to work in childcare, was now attending Alcoholics Anonymous.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin sentenced Twohig to one year in jail for the first sexual assault and to four years for the second, suspending the final year.