A LIMERICK youth has been sentenced to three years' detention following his conviction of sexually assaulting his sisters best friend in 1994 when she was 12 and he was 13.
The jury at the Central Criminal Court failed to reach a verdict on a charge that he raped the girl during the incident in his parents' bedroom on May 7th, 1994, after 10 hours deliberations over two days.
The youth, now aged 15, had pleaded not guilty to both raped and sexual assault during the four day trial. Mr Justice Budd ordered he be detained until May 23rd in a Dublin juvenile assessment centre for the preparation of reports.
He said he would suspend the three year sentence if the assessment reports were satisfactory. He did not wish to detain the youth a day longer than was necessary but if he did not co operate fully while being assessed, the detention term would be activated.
Mr Justice Budd said he was concerned that even though the defendant apologised to the girl immediately after the incident, which indicated he knew he did wrong, there was no sign of remorse since. The girl had been put through the trauma of giving evidence and being cross examined.
Both parents of the now 14 year old victim said they did not want the defendant to be taken from his family and incarcerated. "I don't want any more pain on both families," the girl's tearful mother told Mr Justice Budd.
The girl's father said: "We never came here to seek revenge, only truth. We don't intend to make the situation worse." Both he and his wife thanked the jury for its consideration of the case.
The girl told the jury in evidence she had been friends with the defendant's two sisters and was playing computer games with them in the bedroom when he came in.
His sisters left when they heard a pot boiling over in the kitchen downstairs but their brother pulled her back, pushed her onto the bed and fondled her before raping her.
She said she screamed, bit him and pulled his hair. At one point one of his sisters came back in saw what was happening and just laughed before closing the door and leaving again.
The jury's deliberations began on Thursday evening. After 3 1/2 hours it was sent to a hotel and resumed its deliberations yesterday morning for almost seven hours more. The sexual assault verdict was unanimous and had been reached shortly after deliberations began.