A DUBLIN MAN who as a teenager sexually abused his eight-year-old nephew within a “deeply dysfunctional” household will be sentenced next month.
The Central Criminal Court heard that the accused man, who was 16-years-old when the abuse began, was also having a “deeply inappropriate” sexual relationship with one of the adults in the house.
He was convicted of the sexual abuse of the boy following a trial last year.
During the trial the victim told the court that his uncle “did what he should not have done to any child.” He said during his evidence that he found it disgusting to speak about it in front of women.
The accused man, who cannot be named to protect his victim’s identity, was convicted last November by a jury of eight counts of indecent assault, one count of anal rape and one count of sexual assault on dates between 1988 and 1991.
Justice Patrick McCarthy adjourned sentencing until 20 February next.
A local garda told Orla Crowe Senior Counsel, prosecuting, that the accused man had been living with the victim’s family. The boy said that when he was about eight years old the accused man would “feel and fondle” him when he came home from school.
The victim said what the accused man did to him “hurt so badly” and would take place in various locations at any time of day. He said he was assaulted physically and threatened that he would be killed if he revealed what was happening.
He said the accused man would ask him to have sex “like an adult” and tell him he was “a good little boy.” The abuse eventually escalated into anal rape.
The victim made first made a complaint in 2011 and the accused man denied the allegations when interviewed by gardaí.
In his victim impact statement he said as a child he felt disgusted about what was going on.
He said he had been kicked out of school as a teenager due to his temper. He began drinking and smoking cannabis so he was able to forget the abuse. He said he did not feel safe and sometimes woke up at night thinking the accused man was coming into his room.
The man said he was afraid to do normal things with his own children such as change their nappies or bathe them because what had happened to him. He felt angry he was unable to do these things and was also over-protective of the children. He said his whole life had been affected by the abuse.
The garda agreed with Mary Rose Gearty Senior Counsel, defending, that a “deeply inappropriate” sexual relationship between the accused and an adult in the house had begun when he was 15 years old.
Gearty asked the court to take into account the circumstances in which her client grew up and what had occurred in the household in relation to her client. She said it was a “deeply dysfunctional family.”
She said that her own client’s early years had been difficult and he had been thrown out of his mother’s home as a young teenager and suffered drug addiction issues.
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