A SERVING soldier was found guilty yesterday of four sex assaults on a 13-year-old girl.
His visibly upset wife had to be helped from the court by friends.
During the case, evidence was given that the girl had sexual relations with a number of older men. The girl is now 19 years of age.
The jury was told the law is designed to protect children not only from lustful men but also from themselves.
The prosecution said they were not alleging that the girl did not consent to sex or that the defendant forced himself on her or coerced her in any way.
The jury of nine men and three women returned their verdict on the sixth day of the trial of Kenneth McDonald, of Ernedale Heights, Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, who is attached to the Army at nearby Finner Camp.
Judge Ray Fullam agreed with the prosecution that the 34-year-old married man, a father of three, can be named so long as no details are published that might identify his victim who was 13-years-old at the time of the offences between June 1st and November 30th, 2003.
The jury spent two hours and 48 minutes deliberating at Donegal town Circuit Court before returning a unanimous verdict that McDonald was guilty of four counts of sexually assaulting the girl in his car at woodlands near Ballyshannon. They found him not guilty on two other counts. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The judge ruled that his name be immediately placed on the sex offenders’ register and adjourned the case to June 29th for sentence.
McDonald’s wife, Maggie, who sat beside him as the verdicts were being announced, was visibly upset and clambered past him as a prison officer clamped handcuffs on him while the judge ordered that he be remanded in custody.
Outside the court, friends had to help her to a car as she was on the verge of collapse, crying that they were married in 2004.
During the six-day hearing the jury heard shocking details of sexual encounters between the girl when she was 13 and a string of older men. She kept a diary and lists in which she noted their names and placed special marks alongside to indicate who she had sex with and who she just “shifted” – kissed. She had a “period chart” to help her identify the father if she became pregnant.
By early September 2003 her records showed she had sex 22 times with 17 men. When she updated the list less than three months later, the figures had soared to record sex 59 times with 22 men before she was taken into care and sent to a children’s residential home.