Man who tried to commit suicide after sexually assaulting his daughter’s friend will be sentenced next month

By Sonya McLean

A man who tried to commit suicide after he sexually assaulted his daughter’s best friend while the child was staying in their family home will be sentenced next December.

The now 54-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the then 16-year-old girl, sent an explicit text message to the girl after she left the room she had been in with him and went upstairs to his daughter.

The girl showed the message to the accused’s daughter and told her that he had just sexually assaulted her.

She went downstairs and confronted her father who then left the home and drove to a nearby pier with the intention of committing suicide.

A local detective told Gerardine Small BL, prosecuting, that the man sent a text message to his wife saying he had touched the girl’s breast and he was sorry.

He said he was “no paedo”, told her there was enough money to clear the mortgage and she could have his pension.

Gardaí and the RNLI were later called in to encourage the man to come back from sitting on the rocks at the pier after he threatened to take his life by jumping into the sea.

The man, who described himself later to gardaí as a functioning alcoholic, has since left the family home and lives in County Wexford.

He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of sexual assault and a charge of sending an explicit message to a child at his then home in Dublin on a date in August 2020.

He has no previous convictions.

Judge Elma Sheahan adjourned the case and said she would revoke the man’s bail and remand him in custody but was alerted to the fact that Cloverhill Prison cannot take any new admissions because of a covid outbreak there.

The judge said she would amend the man’s bail conditions to include an order that he stay out of the locality where the girl lives, referring to the fact that she outlined in her victim impact statement that she later saw the man collecting his daughter from the school both girls attend.

James Dwyer SC, defending, said the man would agree to that condition.

The case was adjourned to December 15 next to allow for the completion of a psychological report.

The girl’s mother read her victim impact statement into the record in which she stated “I am the child that (the accused) sexually assaulted and I fell that this is my only identity”.

“I am so much more than this and it will not define me. My story will be my recovery and my story has yet to begin,” the statement continued.

She said she “always stood in solidarity” with others that had been victims of abuse but never thought she would be in their shoes or that the accused would “hand me those shoes”.

She said she also never felt that the man would be the type of person that would commit such crimes and referred to the fact of how she felt welcomed into their family and spoke to the man openly about her struggles with depression.

“I spoke to him as if he were a father figure.

“I spoke to him about my depression.

“I thought those feelings were the worst feelings that I had dealt with, but they were the calm before the storm,” the girl continued.

She said she still had “no clarity or understanding as to why he had done this and I don’t think I ever will”.

The girl spoke of how she struggled with an eating disorder in the aftermath of the assault because she felt having the body type she had was why she had been assaulted.

“I will never feel comfortable in my body. My body was not to blame but it has become a constant reminder of the pain,” the teenager said.

She spoke of her difficulties with school, how she was regularly absent and fell behind with school work.

She now feels overwhelmed with her studies and doesn’t think she will achieve what she had been expected to achieve in her Leaving Certificate.

The girl said she felt constant fear that she would run into the accused and was allowed to leave school ten minutes early each day so she would not have to see the man pick up his daughter.

“These are not the actions of a man who has morals.

“I will never be able to put my suffering into words for myself, let alone for anyone else,” the teenager said.

“I was a child and still am a child. He exposed me to a world that I should never have seen.

“This will forever be his story and not mine,” she said.

The detective garda said that the man and the girl were together in the sitting room after the other members of the family had gone to bed.

The man offered the teenager a can of beer but she refused it before he put his arm around her and put his hand over her breast over her jumper.

She asked him what he was doing and he said he was just “moving it”, referring to her breast.

He began rolling a cigarette and claimed that he had dropped some tobacco onto the girl’s lap before he knelt in front of her and rubbed her legs in an attempt to remove the tobacco.

The girl got up but later sat down to watch another movie with the man.

He later reached over and grabbed her breast telling her “You have a nice pair of tits”.

He continued to fondle her breasts while the girl asked him to stop and tried to remove his hand.

She pushed him away and said she was going upstairs to bed.

She then got a text from the accused saying he was sorry for what he did.

She replied that it was OK but he messaged her again saying “Any man or woman would love to suck your tits and lick your pussy”.

She showed her friend the message who went downstairs and confronted her father.

Mr Dwyer read a letter from his client in which he said he was “very sorry for my actions”.

“I don’t know what came over me. I never thought I was capable of doing this. I am truly sorry for putting you through this.”

Counsel asked the court take into account his client’s co-operation with the garda investigation, his lack of previous convictions and remorse.

He said his client developed an alcohol dependency during the pandemic but is currently get treated for this.

He considers himself a functioning alcoholic.