Man who sexually assaulted teenage babysitter to be sentenced later

By Sonya McLean

A Galway man will be sentenced later for the repeated sexual assault of a teenage girl who babysat his young children.

The 54-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the now 28-year-old woman, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to four charges of sexual assault on dates between June 1, 2012 and February 2014. The complainant was aged between 16 and 17 years old at the time.

In her victim impact statement, she described the man as sub-human, a monster and master manipulator, who violated her in every way possible while she cared for his children.

Prosecuting counsel, Timothy O’Leary SC, said the teenager would often be left speaking to the man when he and his wife returned from a night out.

He would stay up chatting to the teenager and give her alcohol.

She later told gardaí she would stay over in the house, sleeping on the couch in the sitting room and the man would sexually assault her there, while his wife and children slept upstairs.

There were also two occasions when he sexually assaulted her in two different local pubs after she happened to see him on a night out.

The woman read her victim impact statement into the record. She described the man as sub-human, a monster, and a sexual predator with animalistic behaviour.

She said he groomed her and did everything he could to break her down “piece by piece”. “He has destroyed the life I hoped for,” she said.

The woman said he repeatedly sexually assaulted her while she cared for his children and tried to protect them. “He is a master manipulator, a bully – he violated me in every sense of the world”.

She described his home as the “house of horrors” and said before she entered his home, her life was normal.

She was outgoing and enjoyed playing music and swimming.

She said she grappled with insecurity and was anxious to gain independence, which the offer of babysitting for the man gave her. “I innocently looked forward to earning money, but the life that I knew and loved would never be the same”.

She said the man “put effort into grooming me” and described the sexual assaults on her as “relentless”.

She said the man also made comments about her body and appearance, using derogatory language and teasing her. He told her he discussed her weight with his own wife and how one member of her extended family agreed with him that they were concerned about the girl’s weight.

“His objective was to isolate me and it worked. He knew I would feel ashamed and embarrassed,” she said before she added that she never went to discos because of her lack of confidence.

She said she can still smell him, can still feel him smothering her while he lay on top of her as he sexually assaulted her in his family home.

“He clicked his fingers and whistled at me the way you would a dog. He treated me like an animal. I felt like an animal,” she continued.

She began to refuse to babysit for him, but her mother couldn’t understand why she would not go. As far as her parents were concerned, the man’s home was a safe place.

“I felt trapped and completely powerless. That is where he wanted me,” she said.

She spoke of how she felt she would be better off if he killed her.

She began to pull away from people because she felt unworthy of love, dirty and disgusting.

She said the man found ways to get to her and followed her and antagonised her, referring to the sexual assaults in the pubs. “I was not safe anywhere,” she said.

She said she started making plans to kill herself. “I should have been looking forward to my future but I was planning my death. He had taken everything from me. I was left frozen with fear, trying to figure out how to kill myself and how to die”.

“The best days of my life were stolen from me. I was battling alcohol and drug addiction.

“I did everything to try and remove myself from my own body,” she continued adding she went to bed at night “praying I would not wake up”.

She said she distanced herself from her family. “My anger was fuelled by self-hatred and self-loathing all because of what I endured at his hands”.

“I have lived my twenties in isolation. My sense of self and place has been stolen from me,” the woman continued before she said that her parents moved house as they had originally lived very close to the man.

She spoke of how she struggled to cope in the years, months and weeks leading up to the trial date.

“It has taken so much from me and so much time from me”.

She said on the day the man pleaded guilty, the sense of relief she felt was “immense”.

“I did not win anything but it confirmed that the end was near,” she continued adding that the “mental, physical and emotional torture,” she experienced was nearly over.

“I have to live carrying the burden of what he did to me every day,” she said adding that she does not go to certain places for fear of seeing him.

“I cannot escape what he did to me, even when I go to sleep,” she said. “It has destroyed my life. Why didn’t he just kill me?”

“What would I be like if he had not sexually abused me?” she asked. “I will carry the pain and trauma of this abuse forever.”

“He is a sub-human, a monster. I am handing everything over to him. I am returning every piece of shame and guilt back to him. They belong to him,” she said.

She ended her statement thanking her parents, friends and partner and said she is intending to put effort into creating a future for herself.

The court heard that the man has a previous conviction for sexual assault on a ten-year-old child when he was 13 years old.

This conviction is under appeal and the man had contested the case.

Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo adjourned the case to October 21 next to allow for the preparation of reports in relation to sexual offenders treatment the man is currently undergoing.