A man with a drink problem who raped a girl and claimed he thought it was her mother has been jailed for six years by Mr Justice Carney at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.
Kevin Murphy (27), Seaview Terrace, Glenbeigh, Co Kerry, pleaded guilty to committing the rape on February 11th, 2003.
The court heard he committed the offence after drinking 20 pints.
Mr Justice Carney was told that Murphy came to the gardaí himself to admit what happened. He made one interview statement immediately and then made four more after his formal arrest.
Murphy told gardaí he spent most of the day drinking and left his home late at night to go to the victim's house. He came into it via the back door which was open and in the room which was in total darkness he saw a figure sleeping on a couch whom he thought was the victim's mother.
He said he had sex with the person lying there and only realised it was a then 12-year-old girl when she woke and screamed.
He told gardaí he ran from the house immediately and said: "I didn't know what I was doing."
Mr Justice Carney suspended the final 18 months of the sentence because Murphy's early guilty plea left a trial slot available "for the case of another violent person".
He also directed that Murphy be certified as a sex offender and that he undergo three years post-release supervision.
Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, for Murphy, earlier told Mr Justice Carney that his client wanted to go to jail to get treatment for his chronic alcohol problem and was "quite serious" about that because he was "appalled by this matter".
Mr MacEntee said: "He is very conscious of the wrong he has done to this victim and her family and is so ashamed of himself that he couldn't pretend for the sake of this hearing that he had given up the drink."
Mr MacEntee said Murphy asked him to apologise publicly for his crime.
"He feels that the person who did this is nobody he knows and he has to live the rest of his life knowing he had illegal sex with a child."