A man who raped his teenage niece in his car in Co Roscommon has been jailed for nine years.
The Central Criminal Court previously heard that local gardai became suspicious after spotting the man's car parked in an unlit location in Co Roscommon on a date in November 2017.
The man had raped the 15-year-old girl before they arrived, and when he spotted the patrol car's lights told her to say she was his daughter.
The court heard that officers got the impression the girl was being watched by the man, and they told him to bring her home. Gardai were unhappy with the man's story and decided to follow the car, noting where the girl was dropped off.
They later went back to speak to her, but she initially said nothing had happened. She made a formal complaint in early 2019.
The 50-year-old man was convicted of rape following a trial at the Central Criminal Court earlier this month. He doesn't accept the verdict.
He cannot be identified to protect the anonymity of his victim.
Passing sentence today, Mr Justice Tony Hunt set a pre-mitigating sentence of 12 years in prison.
Judge Hunt said the mitigating factors in this case are that the defendant seems to have been a hard worker and took part in difficult work. He noted that the man had no previous convictions. He said an unusual mitigating factor is that it has to be accepted that the defendant’s English is very limited, which will make serving a sentence here more difficult.
The judge said this man is working in prison and undertaking courses at present. He said the defendant has little or no connections here to support him.
Judge Hunt suspended the final three years of the twelve-year sentence under the following strict conditions: on completion of the nine-year sentence, the defendant is to leave this jurisdiction and not return for ten years.
He is to have no contact, direct or indirect, with the injured part in this case and that includes his direct family members also. Further, if at any time in the future, the defendant commits any sexual offence in this jurisdiction or breaches the above conditions, he will be called on to serve the remaining three years of his suspended sentence.
He backdated this sentence to when the man went into custody on this matter.
The court previously heard that the man offered the girl a lift but didn't take her home as she expected.
Instead, he parked the car at an unlit location in Co. Roscommon. He then got into the back of the car and raped her.
The girl started to scream, and he told her, “You are screaming for no reason; there is no point screaming as there is no one here who can hear you.”
On the journey home, the man threatened the girl, telling her not to say anything to anyone.
When she got home, the girl started to self-harm.
Gardai later went to the girl's home and while she initially fobbed them off, she did tell them her real name.
She agreed to go to the local garda station and was joined there by her mother, who had been working. When gardai spoke to them, the girl initially made no complaint.
Gardai checked her phone while she was at the station, and they found a €50 note along with the man's telephone number written on a post-it note.
During the trial, the girl's mother said her daughter was self-harming and very upset in the aftermath of the incident but would not talk to her. She arranged for a family friend to speak with her daughter.
The girl fobbed off the family friend, telling her she had been raped by another boy. The court heard the family friend didn't believe this but didn't push the girl as she was worried about her.
The friend broached the subject again a few months later, having noticed the girl would start to shake or cry if she saw the man about town. Around this time, the girl told her the man had raped her. She encouraged the girl to speak to her mother but didn't want to break the child's confidence.
In March 2019, the girl made a complaint to a social worker and a garda who were supporting her as she was being bullied. Her mother was contacted and the girl also told her what had happened.
The court heard the girl said she was “sick of him calling me a whore, sick of them calling me names, sick of it all”.
An investigation started, and the girl was interviewed by specialist gardai in April 2019.
The man was arrested in early 2020. While he was co-operative and provided background information, nothing of evidential value was obtained from the interview.
He later left the jurisdiction and was arrested on foot of a European Arrest Warrant. He has been in custody since returning to Ireland in late May 2023.
He has no relevant previous convictions.
A victim impact statement was read to the court by prosecuting counsel. The girl said she started to self-harm after the incident, “hoping that would kill me”.
She said she developed issues with sleep and eating and suffered from nightmares.
The victim said she was scared to talk or to leave her home alone.
“Everywhere I went, he was in his car following me,” she said, adding that members of the man's family also followed her.
She also said she was “scared for her life”.
The investigating garda agreed with Colman Cody SC, defending, that the man spoke with gardai before the victim had made a formal complaint and was generally co-operative.
It was further accepted that the man wasn't arrested for interview until 2020 and was released without charge. The garda agreed that a European Arrest Warrant was later issued after the Director of Public Prosecutions gave directions for the man to be charged.
The court heard the man moved to Ireland from a country in Central Europe in 2015 with members of his family and has limited English.
Mr Cody told the court his client's family had since returned home and asked the court to take into account the impact of family separation on his client.
Counsel outlined his client's background and family circumstances. His client has a long work history and has been using his time in custody constructively.
