'The child was terrified': Man jailed for eight years for sexual abuse of young cousin

A man who sexually abused his 13-year-old cousin after luring her to an abandoned shed against her will has been jailed for eight years.

After the assault the then 24-year-old man told the child that he would drown her in the river if she told anyone about it, the Central Criminal Court has heard. He later made threats against the girl's father, saying he would leave him looking like 'Chucky', the horror movie doll.

The offence took place at an address in the South-East of the country on June 25 last year. The court heard the defendant, who was originally charged with raping the child, was out on his pony and trap when he met the girl out walking. He told her to get up on the trap and drove her to the site of an isolated sewerage treatment centre.
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She began crying and he told her to shut up. When they arrived at site she ran away through nettles and thorns to escape the man but he caught hold of her and asked her why she had run. She told him she was scared.

He then brought her to a shed where he sexually assaulted and raped her, ignoring repeated appeals to stop and telling her to “shut up”.  After the assault, the man made the child swear on the lives of various family members to stay silent.

A guilty plea to sexually assaulting the child was accepted by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on a full facts basis, prosecuting counsel Eoin Lawlor SC told the court. 

The man, now aged 25, also pleaded guilty to one count of witness intimidation on a date in March this year. He has 81 previous convictions, including theft and fraud, road traffic offences and criminal damage.

Sentencing the man today,Mr Justice Paul McDermott said that, as an adult member of the victim's extended family who had some degree of authority, these “extremely serious offences” were a complete breach of trust.

“The child was terrified,” he said, noting that she began crying on the way to the site and was crying throughout.

Justice McDermott said the humiliating nature of the sexual assault and the threats he made to her and her family were aggravating factors. He said the victim, who was in court for the sentence hearing, is a “very brave girl” who showed exemplary courage and great character in coming forward, despite the threats made to her.
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“He clearly believes he can threaten anyone with violence, child or adult, to get his way,” the judge said.

Mr Justice McDermott said he was obliged to take into consideration the early plea of guilty which meant the child and her family did not have to face a trial and the prospect of cross-examination. In light of this, he reduced the headline sentence to nine years.

He suspended the final year for a period of two years on condition that the man keep the peace while in custody and for the two years after his release and engage fully with the Probation Services for that time, including engaging with offence-focused work and an assessment for a therapeutic group treatment programme.

He ordered that the defendant engage with Tusla to safeguard any potential future contact with children and that he should not contact or approach, directly or indirectly the victim or her family.

Prosecution counsel told the court that, notwithstanding the threats made, the girl was “brave enough to tell her family members” as soon as the man dropped her off,  She was taken to a sexual assault treatment unit the following day and interviewed by specialist gardaí the day after that.

While the girl was in hospital, the man and his partner went to the gardaí and he claimed he had been falsely accused of sexually abusing his cousin. He asked for a DNA test and protested his innocence.

The child was able to identify where the assault took place and the man's semen was found on the shed doorframe. The court heard he had wiped it there after he ejaculated in the corner following the assault. Semen was found on the child but no DNA match was found.

In March 2025, the child's older sister came across Facebook posts made by the man in which he issued a series of threats against her father.

“People don't know what I'm capable of doing but you're going to find out,” he said in one video. “I'm going to leave you looking like Chucky the doll.”

Mr Lawlor told tHe court that Chucky is a horror movie doll with scars on its face. The man's bail was revoked in the wake of these threats.

In her victim impact statement which was read out by a local detective, the girl said she is “always scared”.

“I'll never be the same girl,” she said. “I'll never see him as a cousin again. He broke the trust between my family and I. When I see him, I get very scared and run.”

Defence counsel Padraig Dwyer SC asked the court to accept that his client’s “expression of remorse and contrition was evident in the very early plea, which spared the victim in the case the ordeal of the trial process”.

It was acknowledged that a report from the Probation Service said he was at a high risk of re-offending but counsel said his client is committed to undertaking and engaging in rehabilitation.

“Hopefully the firm commitment could offer some comfort to the court in terms of future prospects and will hopefully reduce the high risk of re-offending,” counsel continued.