Six years for raping and sexually assaulting kids

‘ The accused said he didn’t speak to the victim during the offence and the whole thing lasted five minutes. He said if he told anyone he would kill him,’ said Ms Rowland.

The accused man voluntarily came to the garda station on August 18, 2014 with his mother, where he made full admissions to raping the boy on two occasions.

In her victim impact statement, the mother of the boy said she first noticed there was something wrong with her son when he started taking extra showers and washing himself extensively in an unnatural manner in 2013.

When she asked him about his behaviour, he told her that he had been raped twice by the accused and wanted to clean himself.

The court heard that a ‘permanent scar’ has been left on her son. In a victim impact report, the mother said her young son ‘is now undergoing treatment and lashes out’ at her and he was ‘not the boy she remembers from a few years ago.’

‘He was ten years of age when he was first raped and 11 when he was raped for the second time. I feel he will never recover from this. I feel helpless and guilty and that I should have noticed something was wrong with him the previous year,’ the mother stated in her victim impact report.

The second victim was a girl with Down Syndrome. On April 5, 2015, her mother was helping her shower when she heard her daughter say the accused had kissed her.

‘She said he had put his tongue in her mouth and she did not like it,’ said counsel. The accused knew the victim for a while and he told her she was his boyfriend so she would not tell anyone. He knew she had special needs, the court heard.

The girls parents said in their victim impact statement that their daughter’s ‘ loving nature’ had been ‘snapped away from her’ by a person who knew her circumstances, disability and routine.

‘He knew what he was doing and the damage he would do. She is self-harming now a lot and has a total distrust of the male sex. Our hearts have been ripped apart,’ read Ms Rowland.

Defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC, said his client was 15 years old when he began offending. He has no previous convictions and has since attempted to take his own life as a result of his shame and disgust.

His parents disowned him when he made full admissions.

Counsel told the court he was instructed to apologise unreservedly to the court for his client’s behaviour.

The court heard that medical personnel who had treated him, described him as being naïve and of an immature disposition.

Counsel said that while he is doing well in jail, there are concerns about the process that is in place for when he ultimately leaves prison.

Justice McCarthy sentenced the defendant to three years for the offences on each victim to run consecutively and ordered he undergoes five years post-release supervision and undertake sexual offenders therapeutic courses. AT this very moment in time you can’t see our kitchen chairs, because they’re buried beneath a mound of ironing that has been accruing since the weather got good.

The floor has that sticky consistency you find in nightclubs at 3 am and I haven’t changed the beds in at least a fortnight. I’m praying for a bit of rain because otherwise we are going to be buried in our own filth or the children will starve to death.

I’ve gone to pot since the sun started shining. I’ve turned into a slovenly good for nothing housewife who hasn’t lifted a finger to make beds, clean kitchens or wash children since Summer arrived to our shores a fortnight ago. We may be all pretty grubby and hungry but we’ve got nice tans at least!

The children are beginning to wonder if I’m ever going to cook again.

Not that they’re particularly worried seeing as I’m not known for my culinary prowess. But I think take away six nights in a row has proven a bit much even for them.

And there has been wine. A lot of wine. In fact I’ve drank ALL the wine in the house. I feel like I’m on my holidays and if you’re eating outside you have to have wine, don’t you? It would be rude not to.

I can actually feel wine seeping out of my pores at this stage so if the weather doesn’t change by some divine intervention, I’m heading for the Betty Ford Clinic.

Apart from my growing alcohol dependence, my filthy house and dirty kids there’s been other down sides to the good weather. The local supermarket sold out of ice creams and wine funnily enough.

And despite the fact that I think a national holiday should be declared when the temperatures hits 20 degrees, people still have to work. An absolute outrage in my opinion. Nothing worse than being stuck in a stuffy office when the sun is splitting the stones outside.

Then there’s the whole issue of overcrowding. When I decided to go to the beach last week, I couldn’t find it because it was covered...with people, all lined up like multi coloured sardines in swimsuits lying practically on top of each other trying to soak up the rays. I couldn’t bear it. Why couldn’t they feck off and find their own beach, somewhere else, miles away from me?

You could argue that I’m a contrary old wagon who’s only looking for something to complain about. And you’re partly right.

But you know I have to admit the novelty of having a big yellow ball in the sky every day has worn off a little bit.

I need to clean my house, feed my children and STOP drinking wine.

A few days of rain or even cloudy skies would sort me out and get me back on an even keel.

What’s seldom is wonderful!