Man jailed for raping underage cousin

This article contains references to rape. Reader discretion is advised 

By Natasha Reid

A 24-year-old man has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for raping his underage cousin after giving her cocaine.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, infected the then 16-year-old girl with chlamydia as a result.

He pleaded guilty to the defilement on May 9 2021 at the flat he shared with his mother. A second count of defilement on July 2021 at the same location was taken into account.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that he was 21 at the time he committed the offences against his second cousin.

The court heard that the injured party was visiting her aunt, who was also a neighbour of the defendant. The man’s mother was not home, and nor was the girl’s aunt, when he arrived at her door in the early hours of the morning with cocaine and a bottle of vodka.

She took some cocaine and said she had a sip of vodka before beginning to feel dizzy. He asked her to his flat to watch a boxing match and she went with him.

He began kissing her and said: “If anything happens, would you not tell any of them?”

They went upstairs to his bedroom and had sexual intercourse, of which she remembered only the start. Her next memory was waking up at 7am in bed beside him; both were naked.

Between that date and the date of the next offence in July of that year, the man and the injured party exchanged intimate photographs at his request. The messages were on Snapchat, and so disappeared.

In July 2021, he asked her to come to his flat to look at a new scooter. She told gardai that she felt she had to go, in case he would tell anyone what going on between them and that she would get in trouble.

He again brought her up to his bedroom where they had sex. She said that she felt used afterwards, that he had asked her there only for sex.

She confided in her aunt a few weeks later, and her aunt told her mother, who took her to the Rotunda for a checkup. The accused had told the injured party’s brother that he had chlamydia, and the victim was found to have contracted it.

The man presented himself by arrangement to his local garda station. He has no previous convictions.

The injured party opted to deliver her victim impact statement in person, and was accompanied to court by her father. Her mother has since passed away from cancer.

She said that her whole life had changed for the worse following these offences. She explained that she had suffered such trauma and shame that she dropped out of education. She became tearful when she said that she could not face other people.

She said that she felt unclean after finding out she had chlamydia. However, she said she hoped that her case would encourage other victims of this type of crime to come forward.

The accused man’s barrister noted that she had turned 17 just five months after the first incident, and that his client was four years and nine months older than her.

He pointed out that there was no suggestion of force or coercion. When she first spoke to gardaí, she said the sex was consensual and that she did not want to make a complaint.

Counsel said the accused fully accepts responsibility for his misconduct, in particular the ‘aggravating feature’ that he had given her chlamydia.

“While there was an element of manipulation in turning up to her flat at 4am with vodka and cocaine, the opportunity presented itself unexpectedly,” he said. “It was opportunistic. It wasn’t violent. She was a participant, albeit an underage participant, and unable to give consent. In her mind, it was consensual.”

He said that his client had alcohol, cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy addictions since the age of 16, but has been receiving addiction support.

He described what he had done as very selfish.

“He abused his position of trust,” he said. “He took advantage of his younger cousin while in the throes of addiction.”

He said that his client had been offered a job as a brand ambassador with a sales and marketing company, selling door-to-door subscriptions for a charity. He was due to start tomorrow.

A probation report placed him at a moderate risk of reoffending.

Judge Martin Nolan described it as aggravating that there was a second incident, and said that the accused deserved to go to prison.

“Obviously I have to take into account that she was close to the age of consent,” he said. “The fact he was 21 is pertinent.”

He sentenced him to 15 months in prison.