Teenager loses appeal over child defilement sentence

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

The teenager’s appeal against a four-year sentence for defilement of a child under 15 was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 8 February 2021. The offences involved a 12-year-old girl in a Dublin park.

The court said the sentencing judge had correctly set an eight-year headline sentence and applied a 50% reduction for the guilty plea and the teenager’s age.

The teenager had pleaded guilty in June 2019 to two counts arising from offences in August 2015. A probation report said he did not accept that he had engaged in harmful sexual behaviour and had claimed the victim consented.

The appeal court therefore left the four-year prison sentence in place.