Teen pleads guilty to threatening girl, 14, into intercourse
A TEENAGER told a 14-year-old girl her mother would be found dead in a laneway if she did not have sex with him, a court heard yesterday.
The accused, aged 16 and 17 at the time, admitted engaging in sexual intercourse with the victim on three dates between December 1, 2014, and July 31, 2015.
The offences took place at his home. In a Garda interview, he denied issuing a violent threat against the girl’s mother.
He said to officers: “Who am I? Larry Murphy? I didn’t threaten her. If that was the case, why didn’t she finish it ages ago?”
His lawyer Padraig Dwyer told the court: “That name, Larry Murphy, became a household name. He was a serious, violent rapist whose case made national headlines.”
In her victim impact statement delivered by counsel Philip Rahn, the girl said: “I don’t feel confident anymore. I find it hard to trust new people. It changed my family’s life and my life. We moved far away, isolating me.
“It affected my sleep. I had bad dreams. I just felt sad all the time. I didn’t want to do anything or go anywhere. Staying in bed.
“I lost all motivation.”
In a Garda statement the girl said after the “lane” threat, “I felt like he would do something to my mother and I gave in”. The two were in a relationship at the time having met through Facebook.
Following the threat, they had sex for the second time. The first had been after previous coercion from the boy.
Asked in an interview with gardai if he had ever warned of violence against the mother, the accused said: “I can’t threaten someone I don’t know.
“I said she could do with a slap on the mouth but I never said I would do it.”
The victim was to give evidence via video link last month. However, before that happened, Mr Dwyer said his client, now 19, didn’t want to put her through the stress.
He told the court he pleaded guilty but in terms of his culpability was only 16 at the time the relationship began.
Mr Dwyer added: “My client wants to apologise and regrets engaging in unlawful conduct.”
Judge Gerald Keys adjourned the case to April 10 for sentence and remanded the accused in custody.
I felt he would do something to my mother and I gave in 14-YEAR-OLD VICTIM
STATEMENT TO GARDAI