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Judge tells court of his anger at humiliation of victim in defilement case

The accused are due to be sentenced in October
The accused are due to be sentenced in October

A High Court judge has told a teenage boy who admits defiling a 12-year-old girl that he is angry and frustrated by the way in which the victim was humiliated.

The 17-year-old and a co-accused, now aged 20, both from Dublin, have both pleaded guilty to engaging in a sexual act with a child under the age of 15 at a place in the county on 25 August 2015.

The older boy has also pleaded guilty to engaging in a sexual act with the same girl on 21 August 2015 at a different location.

The Central Criminal Court heard that a group of boys took photos while the older boy, then aged 16, forced the girl to give him oral sex.

Four days later she met this older boy again and he again forced her to perform oral sex on him.

He then told the girl that she had to perform a sexual act on the younger boy or else he would show the pictures of the earlier sexual activity to others.

The victim told gardaí she felt she had to do it. She said she was shaking and could not stop shaking.

After about ten seconds, the girl ran off.

Lawyers for this boy told the court that he himself was in fear of the older boy.

He had his hands down by his side during the incident and did not touch the girl or say anything to her, defence counsel, Róisín Lacey SC said.

She said the incident was a once off act which was stage-managed by the older boy.

She said that the older boy had asked her client "are you going to be gay?" meaning was he afraid. Her client believed there would be adverse postings about him on social media, she said.

She said her client had just turned 14 himself and believed the victim was also 14 years old.

Ms Lacey said a Probation Service report noted that he had little understanding of the concept of consent, and didn't realise the victim and he himself were both too young to consent.

She said he bitterly regretted his actions and was offering an unreserved apology to the victim.

The report shows that he had displayed a considerable extent of victim awareness and of the harm to her psychological well being and her reputation, counsel said.

"He accepts he should have stood up to peer pressure to an older and more streetwise boy and should have done the right thing," she said.

Detective Garda David Jennings told prosecuting counsel, Anne Marie Lawlor that the victim had been in contact with the older boy on Facebook and they agreed to meet.

He said they met in a field where the boy was with other boys. The court heard she was dragged and pushed over to the edge of the field. She told gardaí she had a gut feeling that something bad would happen but ignored her gut feeling. 

Mr Justice Michael White said he will sentence the younger boy on 12 August.

He told the boy that what he did was nasty and that he should have stood up for himself.

"It's an awful thing to do. You should always stand up if somebody tells you to do something wrong. You have this for the rest of your life. It has left you with a mark," he said.  The judge said he felt angry and frustrated by the way in which the victim, who is a vulnerable child, was humiliated. 

He praised the courage of the victim in giving her own victim impact statement to the court. In her statement the girl said after the defendants abused her she was changed completely.

The judge adjourned sentencing of the older accused to October 9 next. This accused cannot be identified in order to protect the anonymity of the complainant. The younger defendant cannot be identified because he is a juvenile.