Teenage boy pleads guilty to defiling girl (12)

A High Court judge has told a teenage boy who admits defiling a girl (12) that he is angry and frustrated by the way in which the victim was humiliated.

The 17-year-old and a co-accused, now aged 20 and are both from Dublin. They have both pleaded guilty to engaging in a sexual act with a child under the age of 15 on August 25th, 2015.

The older boy has also pleaded guilty to engaging in a sexual act with the same girl on August 21st, 2015 at a different location.

The Central Criminal Court heard that a group of boys took photos while the older boy, then aged 16, forced the girl to give him oral sex. Four days later she met this older boy again and he again forced her to perform oral sex on him.

He then told the girl that she had to “give a b***job” to the younger boy or else he would show the pictures of the earlier sexual activity to others.

The victim told gardaí she felt she had to do it. She said she was shaking and couldn’t stop shaking while she did it, the court heard. This lasted for about ten seconds before the girl ran off. Lawyers for this boy told the court that he himself was in fear of the older boy.

He had his hands down by his side during the incident and did not touch the girl or say anything to her, Roisin Lacey SC said. She said the incident was a once off act which was stage-managed by the older boy.

She said that the older boy had asked her client “are you going to be gay?”, meaning was he afraid. Her client believed there would be adverse postings about him on social media, she said.

She said her client had just turned 14 himself and believed the victim was also 14 .

Ms Lacey said a Probation Service report noted he had little understanding of the concept of consent, and didn’t realise the victim and he himself were both too young to consent.

She said he bitterly regretted his actions and was offering an unreserved apology to the victim.

The report shows that he had displayed a considerable extent of victim awareness and of the harm to her psychological well being and her reputation, counsel said. “He accepts he should have stood up to peer pressure to an older and more streetwise boy and should have done the right thing,” she said.

Mr Justice Michael White said he will sentence the younger boy on August 12th. He told the boy that what he did was nasty and that he should have stood up for himself.

“It’s an awful thing to do. You should always stand up if somebody tells you to do something wrong. You have this for the rest of your life. It has left you with a mark,” he said.

He said he felt angry and frustrated by the way in which the victim, who is a vulnerable child, was humiliated.

He praised the courage of the victim in giving her own victim impact statement to the court. In her statement the girl said after the defendants abused her she was changed completely.

Mr Justice White adjourned sentencing of the older accused to October 9th next. This accused cannot be identified in order to protect the anonymity of the complainant. The younger defendant cannot be identified because he is a juvenile.