Two brothers have been jailed for 22 months for raping their cousin when they were all teenagers after one of the accused started playing a game with the victim in which he pretended to be a bull mounting a cow.
The two defendants, who are now in their 40s, had denied a number of counts of rape and sexual assault of the victim, who was younger than them when he visited them at their farm in Co Cork on various occasions in the mid-1990s.
But the jury at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork found one of the accused guilty of one count of anally raping the injured party and two counts of sexually assaulting him while they found the second accused guilty of two counts of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault.
Prosecuting counsel Ray Boland SC told the jury during the two-week trial earlier this year that the disputed events occurred in the mid-1990s when the complainant and the two defendants were in their early teens, the two accused being older than the victim.
Mark O'Connell: The mystery is not why we Irish have responded to Israel’s barbarism. It’s why others have not
The music of 2024: Our critics’ verdicts on the best albums and acts of the year
‘One Christmas Day my brother set me on fire’: seven writers spill their most bizarre Yuletide yarns
Kellie Harrington fought hard for the dream ending she well deserved
“They used to play a game in the livingroom of the house. They would take turns being the farmer and the cows. This was innocent at first. It occurred in the good room. In the game, a bull would enter the room and the bull would mount the cow. They might have seen this occurring on the farm.
“This became more sinister and sexualised.”
On Monday, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring recapped on the evidence that she had heard during the trial and how the accused had struggled with depression and other issues, and it was only after he confided in his wife in 2015 and his father in 2016, that he went and made a formal complaint to gardaí.
Gardaí arrested the two defendants in 2018 and questioned them about the abuse which they denied, and they reiterated their denials throughout the trial which was their entitlement though it meant the mitigating benefit of a guilty plea and expression of remorse was not available to them.
Ms Justice Ring noted that the complainant had set out in a victim impact statement the damaging effect that the abuse had on him, leading him to suffer from depression and drink problems throughout his life, while it also led to parenting difficulties for him with his own children.
She noted that the effects of child sexual abuse can be life-lasting though she hoped that with counselling and support he would go on to lead “a healthy and happy life”, though she noted that, as is often the case in interfamilial abuse, this abuse had led to divisions within the wider family.
She said what was a significant factor in the case was that the two accused were children themselves at the time of the abuse and she would have to take that into account when imposing sentences on the two men whom she would not differentiate between despite the difference in convictions.
However, she did point out they were both older than their cousin and that he was a guest in their home at the time and there was a breach of trust and power on their part as the abuse progressed.
She accepted a number of testimonials from friends and neighbours of the accused, who were all aware of what they had been convicted of but were willing to testify on their behalf that they were regarded as good hard-working men within their rural community.
She noted that the two accused had no previous convictions, so they were effectively coming before the court as first-time offenders, while she also noted that the abuse had happened more than 25 years ago and neither man had come to Garda attention since then.
Another important mitigating factor in their favour when it came to sentencing was the fact both men had been assessed as having a low risk of reoffending and on that basis, she was willing to suspend 18 months of her intended sentence of 40 months, she said.
The two accused both gave an undertaking that they would be of good behaviour and keep the peace and Ms Justice Ring suspended 18 months of the 40 months sentence, leaving both accused of 22 months to serve in jail, as well as have their names placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
