A Dublin man who indecently assaulted his step-sister and threw darts at her when she was a child has received a partially suspended 18 month sentence.
The man (54), who cannot be named to protection the victim’s identity, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to five counts of indecent assault on dates between 1979 and 1981 in Dublin.
Judge Cormac Quinn sentenced the man to 18 months imprisonment for each of the five counts, all of which will run concurrently. He suspended the final nine months of each sentence provided the man keep the peace and be of good behaviour for 12 months post release and undergo supervision of The Probation Service.
The court heard that when the victim was between six and eight years old, the man would drag her by the hair into his bedroom and make her remove her clothes.
Darts
He would then proceed to lick her legs all the way up to her genitals. He would on occasion attempt to insert his penis into her vagina or mouth.
The man, who was between 15 and 17 years old during the assaults, also flung darts at the victim which sometimes struck her.
Counsel for the defence said his client had been a young man not “blessed with insight into such matters” at the time of the offences.
He said the man had “significant cognitive barriers” and did not come from a privileged background. He said the man was a very vulnerable member of society. The probation report of his client was “largely positive”, he said, though it also stated that the man was of a medium risk of re-offending.
Judge Quinn remarked that at the time of the offence the maximum penalty for indecent assault was two years imprisonment.
He said the aggravating factors in the case were the number of assaults, that they took place in the victim’s home, that she was a child at the time, and the physical and psychological effect the offences had on her.
Judge Quinn said the mitigating factors were the early guilty plea, the man’s co-operation with gardaí, his age at the time of the offences, his lack of relevant previous convictions, his remorse and shame, and his history of paranoid schizophrenia.
He remarked that the man “looks older than his years”.