A WESTMEATH teenager who escaped from custody shortly after being convicted for his role in a vicious gang rape of a 25 year old woman has been sentenced to four years' detention by the Central Criminal Court.
Mr Justice Moriarty was told the now 15 year old boy still maintained his innocence.
He had been awaiting sentence and serving an unrelated two year term for larceny when he escaped.
Last July, following a 13 day trial, a jury took just over two hours to convict him of attempting to rape the woman in a field in a Westmeath town on the morning of March 26th, 1994. He was 13 at the time.
The jury also returned guilty verdicts on charges of sexual assault and assaulting the woman, occasioning her actual bodily harm, on the same occasion.
He was remanded in custody to Trinity House after his trial. However a few weeks later absconded and was on the run for four days.
When recaptured near his home, he said: "I just wanted to go home."
Ms Gerti Rafferty, of Trinity House, said the youth felt that once his trial was over he was going to he let free in any event. His disappearance had put a serious blot on his record at Trinity House.
Ms Rafferty told Mr Maurice Gaffney SC (with Ms Una McGurk), prosecuting, that the defendant and two other boys had been allowed out to the cinema with one member of staff.
There was ample opportunity to escape if a person wished, she said.
However, she added, that during his stay in Trinity House he had matured, passed four Junior Certificate examination subjects and got involved in the soccer team.
Mr Seamus Sorahan SC (with Ms Delia Flynn) defending, a new vista had been opened the youth when he had learned to read and write while in Trinity House.
Mr Justice Moriarty said while he hesitated to comment he thought there might have been a lack of prudence in allowing a virtually unsupervised visit to a cinema so shortly after the youth's conviction on such a serious charge.
The youth had put his victim through a terrifying and protracted ordeal.
In view of his escape from custody, there had to be a significant element of deprivation of liberty.
The four year sentence is to start from July last.
During the trial, the youth denied the charges of raping and assaulting the woman.
Following seven days' of legal argument in the absence of the jury, the youth's sister and a male cousin, both aged 18, were cleared of similar charges on the direction of Mr Justice Moriarty.
On the first day of the case, the victim cried loudly and at times uncontrollably when she described how she regained consciousness in a field to find a girl holding her down while a younger boy raped her. Another boy stood over her.
The victim said she had earlier attended a disco with her brother but left on her own to go to a friend's house.
The trial was also told that, in a statement to gardai after the incident, the youth agreed the woman had been the victim of a gang rape.
However, he denied he raped her as when he tried to have sexual intercourse with her he had failed.