Man sentenced for rape and sexual assault of boy

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

A man was sentenced to nine years, with the final three suspended, for oral rape and sexual assault at the Central Criminal Court on 20 April 2018. The offences occurred at the boy’s family home in the southwest of Ireland between July 2011 and March 2012.

He had pleaded guilty to four charges of oral rape and four of sexual assault. The man cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, who was aged 11 when the abuse began.

The offences came to light after the boy confided in a friend and later made a statement to gardaí. The judge said he could not definitively determine whether the man had ingratiated himself with the family to groom the child.