Two boys who raped a teenage girl in a car at Limerick Racecourse when they were aged just 13 and 15 years old have each been sentenced to six years in detention.
A third defendant (now 18) who was found guilty of aiding and abetting the rapes, by moving the car in which it occurred, was jailed for three and a half years.
The daytime attack against the girl involved humiliation and degradation and was committed by offenders of a very young age, the Central Criminal Court heard.
The teenage rapists and their families do not accept the verdicts of the jury and there was a heavy garda presence in court for sentencing today.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott said that had the boys been adults at the time of the offending, the headline sentence for the rape offences would have been in the range of 15 years to life imprisonment.
"This was a 16-year-old intoxicated girl in a vulnerable situation subjected to rape and sexual assault," he said. "She was raped one after the other by (the two boys) and in the course of these rapes, she was sexually assaulted."
The girl was repeatedly saying no during the assaults. Further indignity and humiliation was heaped upon her by video footage being taken of the incident, the judge said.
Handing down sentence, Mr Justice McDermott noted there was very little to be said in mitigation for the boys, as they have not expressed remorse or any understanding of the harm caused to the complainant. They must be sentenced as juveniles under the Children Act, in which detention is a last resort, the court heard.
The judge accepted the third defendant, who aided and abetted the rapes, has taken some responsibility for his involvement but struggles to understand it.
He noted they have no previous convictions and have been subject to some childhood trauma, with mental health difficulties in their families. They had a lack of understanding in the areas of sexual relations and consent, the court heard.
Mr Justice McDermott sentenced the two rapists to seven and a half years, with the final 18 months suspended on a number of conditions, including that they engage in sexual-offending programmes and have no contact with the complainant. The judge noted this means that part of their sentence will be served in prison.
He sentenced the third defendant to five years in jail as he is now over the age of 18. He suspended the final 18 months of this sentence on the same conditions.
The three boys stood trial at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork earlier this year, with two of the boys (now aged 16 and 17) found guilty of sexually assaulting and raping the then 16-year-old girl in a car at the racecourse on 26 December 2022. They were 13 and 15 years old at the time.
The third boy (now 18) was found guilty by the jury of four counts of aiding and abetting the rapes and sexual assaults following the six-week trial.
The court heard he moved the car during the course of the attack. He was aged 15 at the time. He was acquitted of one count of false imprisonment.
The complainant (now aged 18) was not in court for the sentence hearing in Dublin. In a victim impact statement read out on her behalf by counsel, she described her fear and anxiety in the aftermath of the attack.
"At the age of 16, I had my innocence stripped away from me," she said. "These two (boys) took what they wanted with no regrets."
"They not only took away the rest of my childhood, they took away the rest of my life," she said. "At the age of 16, I was raped. This is always something I will have to carry around."
