Man gets 11 years for raping Cork child who was only able to tell her teddy bears about it

The judge referred to the serious effects—physically, mentally and emotionally—of the two rapes and one sexual assault on the victim who was aged between 10 and 12 at the time while the man who raped her was 29 to 31.

At the time, he told her to keep the sexual abuse a secret. She was afraid to tell her parents or any adults that her older sister’s partner raped her. “The only ones I said this to were my teddy bears,” she said.

In fact she kept the secret for 24 years until she eventually disclosed to gardaí the crimes that were committed against her when she was only 10 or 11 years old.

Earlier this year, a 12-man jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts against the man for raping her twice and sexually assaulting her on occasions between January 1995 and December 1997.

Detective Garda Aidan d'Ardis said the child was raped on two occasions and sexually assaulted once. The defendant was the partner of a much older sister of the victim at the time of the offences. There is a prohibition on identification of the parties.

The girl was visiting her sister’s house when she found herself alone in a bedroom with the accused. She said her tracksuit pants and underwear were pulled down and the sexual assault and rape were committed on that occasion.

The victim told gardaí that before this incident, the defendant said: “Ok, we’ll do something fun.” She said that when he removed her pants and underwear and his own she said: “I didn’t know what was going on, to be honest.” 

The second rape occurred when the defendant took the child into a bathroom of another premises.

Mr Justice McGrath said: “The injured party is a brave and courageous woman whose life has been significantly traumatised. It can only be hoped that with the passage of time her pain can be eased.” 

Victim impact statement

The victim said that as a child she was always very active in sports and had a great family life, visiting a great many places and having a very happy upbringing. “But my childhood was taken away from me the day (defendant’s name) raped me.

“He played on my innocence. He brought me to a room to show me some puppets he had. This is where he raped me… He was saying it was nice. It was really sore. (He) said, ‘Keep this our secret’. I changed as a child. I was no longer a happy child.

“The only ones I said this to were my teddy bears. I was afraid to tell anyone. I had horrific nightmares. I really scared my parents. Dreams of being trapped inside a strange building. (He) would be in the building waiting to do something to me. I am 38 and still have these dreams—I had one only last week,” she said.

She also had suicidal thoughts and considered running away and putting herself in danger without caring what would happen. “Imagine holding on to a secret for 24 years and the harm it caused me. That is what I did,” the injured party said. 

She feared that disclosure would hurt her own parents, damage their health and in the case of her father she was concerned about what he would do if he was told. She said she became more depressed and that the accused was taking over her life and she was walking around in a daze.

Now that she has made the complaint and the defendant has been convicted she said she is no longer going to let him control her life. That said, she concluded by saying that she would live with the rapes “until I take my last breath”.

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