A Derry teenager who sexually abused six boys when he was 12 years old has been given three years' detention by Mr Justice Carney at the Central Criminal Court.
Damien Coyle (17) of Hazelbank, Derry, pleaded guilty to 22 counts of sexual assault and three counts of aggravated sexual assault on dates between 1995 and 1997 at the Kerrykeel caravan park in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
Coyle's victims were six boys aged between five and nine years.
Mr Bruce Antoniotti SC, defending, appealed to the judge to imagine Coyle not as a grown-up who would be 18 next month, but as a 12-year-old boy. Mr Justice Carney said: "He has ruined six lives and I reject the contention that this should go unpunished by criminal law." He sent Coyle to St Patrick's Institution where he is to continue the rehabilitation programme he has been following with the Foyle Trust in Northern Ireland.