Man jailed for oral rape and sexual assault committed aged 15

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

An unnamed man was sentenced on 15 June 2022 to 42 months’ imprisonment for oral rape, with the final 21 months suspended. Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring also imposed an 18-month sentence for sexual assault, to run concurrently.

The man pleaded not guilty to the charges. The proceedings were reported on 15 June 2022. A jury convicted him following a trial in February 2022, when he was still a juvenile.

The offences took place in a public park in west Dublin on 17 January 2020, when he was 15 and the girl was 16. The report said he did not accept the jury’s verdict.

At an earlier hearing, a detective garda described how the accused dragged the girl to a patch of grass and pushed her against a gate. The detective said he sexually assaulted and orally raped her. On arrest, he claimed in a prepared statement that the girl had approached him and consented to oral sex and sexual intercourse.

The judge identified a five-year headline sentence and took account of his circumstances, including his autism, his lack of previous convictions and the sentence that would have applied had he still been a child. She ordered him to attend all education and therapy offered while detained and bound him to keep the peace on release under Probation Service supervision for the suspended period.