A MAN who sexually abused his girlfriend’s 12-year-old sister after a party in her house, has been given community service instead of a jail term.
The man, a Romanian national, claimed he had no recollection of the incident because he was too drunk.
Judge Desmond Hogan said it was a serious offence but at the lower end of the scale. He accepted the man was “out of it on drink and didn’t know what he was doing”.
He sentenced him to two years, suspended in full, on condition he completes 240 hours community service.
The man pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to sexually abusing the girl in the bedroom of her Dublin home in the early hours of April 26th, 2009. He works in a fast food restaurant and has no previous convictions in Ireland or Romania.
Garda Joan O’Connor told prosecuting counsel Róisín Lacey that the victim’s mother was having a birthday party in her house. The man was going out with the victim’s sister at the time and arrived late at the gathering.
At the end of the night he was told he could sleep in the spare room. Sometime later the girl heard him walking around downstairs. She went down and asked him what he was doing. He grabbed her by the arm and told her to return to bed. He followed her to her room and she told him he should get a taxi and go home. He then started to molest her.
The girl asked him what he was doing and he said “sorry, sorry” before returning to the spare room. The girl immediately went to her mother and told her what had happened. The mother and her partner confronted the man and threw him out of the house.
Defence counsel Brian Fitzpatrick said his client was remorseful for the offence