Man who raped girl, 15, who babysat for the woman he was having affair with appeals conviction

The man has been sentenced to eleven years in prison with the final three suspended

By: irishmirror.ie

Nov 22 2024
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Man who raped girl, 15, who ba

An elderly man who twice raped a 15-year-old girl who babysat for the woman he was having an affair with in the 1980s has appealed his conviction.

The now 76-year-old's trial earlier this year heard that in one incident of rape, the Dublin man called to the girl’s home on the pretext of taking her for an interview for a job at nearby newsagents. He instead took her for a drive to the Wicklow mountains, where he raped her.

Following his conviction for two counts of rape and three counts of indecent assault, Mr Justice Patrick McGrath sentenced the defendant to eleven years in prison with the final three suspended.

At an appeal hearing yesterday Bernard Condon SC, for the defendant, said the trial judge should have warned the jury about the dangers of convicting where there was no evidence to corroborate the victim's claims.

Mr Condon said there was a conflict in the evidence given by the complainant and that given by her own mother. In particular, the victim had said she initially didn't want to go with her abuser for the job interview but her mother insisted and forced her to go by breaking a mop over her back.

Mr Condon said that "powerful visual" image was contradicted when the victim's mother said she did not strike her daughter with the mop and that when her daughter returned from the job interview, she was "fine". That contradiction, counsel said, combined with inconsistencies in the complainant's accounts of what happened, required the judge to give a warning to the jury.

Patricia McLaughlin SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the inconsistencies relied on by Mr Condon were matters for the jury to resolve. Such inconsistencies are routine in historical cases, she said, and the trial judge had correctly used his discretion in refusing to give a corroboration warning.

Mr Justice John Edwards, presiding with Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and Mr Justice Brian O'Moore, reserved judgment.

The trial at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin earlier this year heard that while being driven to the Wicklow mountains to be raped, the teenager was frantic and screaming as she feared her abuser might kill her. The man told her to shut up and that she would be alright. He handed her a bar of chocolate and a lollipop after raping her.

The girl scrubbed herself raw with bleach afterwards and feared she might be pregnant. In an earlier incident of rape, the man took the victim back to the home of the woman she had been babysitting for on the pretext of getting her to clean the house.

The victim later told gardaí he had repeatedly promised her he would not touch her but she told gardaí that after she got into the house that day “everything went blank” until she came to lying face down on the floor with the man raping her from behind.

She said she was crushed by him lying on top of her as he held her by her hair. He asked her to clean the house after raping her but she fled. The now 51-year-old woman also told gardaí that there had been occasions when the man had forced her to perform oral sex on him. During one such incident, she said she vomited as the man held her by her hair and forced his penis into her mouth until she gagged.

The man had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to charges of rape and indecent assault of the then 15-year-old girl in Dublin between November 1988 and August 1989.

A jury convicted him on two charges of rape and three charges of indecent assault following an eight-day trial last January. The man was around 41 years old at the time and was married with children. He was having an affair with a woman who the victim had been babysitting for. This woman’s partner was living in England at the time.

Mr Justice Patrick McGrath described the complainant as “a brave woman who has not allowed these crimes to defeat her, but has determinedly brought up her children and put herself through college”. He also highly commended her for “her bravery and determination in reporting the crime and giving evidence at trial”.

In a statement following the trial, the victim said: "Today is the day I get justice – it took 35 years but it still feels like yesterday." She said her abuser had belittled her and made her "feel like dirt". She said he made her feel like she was no one and he was someone. “I thought you would get away with what you had done. That you were laughing at me. You made me afraid….I felt nowhere was safe for me.”

The victim said at 15 years old she believed that she had no one to listen to her and the man knew this and used it to his advantage.
She described how she has had to pull herself out of the “darkest places time and time again” and said it was only through putting herself through college to qualify as a counsellor herself that she finally found her voice.

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