Midlands man who abused two boys in foster care in his family home is jailed
A midlands man, who as a teenager, abused two boys in foster care in his family home has been given a four year prison sentence with the final two and a half years suspended.
The 42-year-old man was convicted after a trial at the Central Criminal Court of four counts of oral rape on various dates between May 1995 and December 1998.
The accused, who was aged between 15 and 18 at the time, was also convicted of eight counts of sexual assault of the victim, who was then aged between 11 and 14.
He was further convicted of four sexual assaults of the victim's older brother on dates in 1995 and 1996. The child in that case was aged from 12 and 13 at the time.
The offending took place in the accused man’s family home in a town in Co Offaly. The court heard the man now accepts the verdicts of the jury and said he is sorry.
Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy noted the court must sentence the man not as an adult but as the 15 to 17 year old who committed the offences. She said the fact of him being a juvenile at the time and the fact of his intellectual functioning being in the low range reduced culpability.
The judge said the acknowledgment of guilt even post conviction had some mitigating weight as “there could be no whispering” that the jury got it wrong or some mistake had been made.
She noted he had also led a productive and useful life for the last 22 years since the offending and had indicated a willingness to engage with the Probation Service and rehabilitation.
The judge said the court considered there to be a further mitigating factor in the failure of the authorities to deal with the matter when a complaint was first made to the HSE by one of the victims in 2001.
She said it would have spared the victim distress which led to him feeling unable to go to gardai until 2014.
The judge said this failure by the authorities to address the matter in 2001 not only caused distress to the victim but has also caused prejudice to the accused. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” she remarked.
She said as a consequence the man was now facing the court as a 42 year old man with family responsibilities when it should have been dealt with in 2001.
Ms Justice Murphy imposed a sentence of four years on each of the rape counts and 18 months on the sexual assault offences. In light of the mitigation she suspended the final two and a half years on strict conditions.