A FORMER Scout leader who raped his young cousin, and 10 years later sexually assaulted her two teenage sisters on a scouting trip, has been jailed for seven and a half years.
The 61-year-old Limerick man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of two of the sisters who wish to retain their anonymity, was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury last February following an eight-day trial.
The man had pleaded not guilty to a number of offences.
He was convicted of two counts of indecent assault against one sister and one count of rape. The offences occurred in her home between 1979 and 1981, when she was aged between six and eight years old and the accused was between 15 and 18.
He was also convicted of one count of sexual assault against each of her two sisters. These victims were teenagers at the time and the man was in his mid-20s. These offences occurred between May and September 1991.
At an earlier sentence hearing, the court heard that the first incident of indecent assault against the first sister involved him touching her vagina and removing her underwear while he was babysitting her.
In the second incident, he asked her to touch and kiss his penis as if it were a game – an incident she later recalled being disgusted by.
The court heard that, in the rape incident, the young girl believes she must have passed out as her next recollection is lying on the bathroom floor and her cousin splashing water on her face.
The court heard that 10 years later the man, who was by then a Scout leader, convinced the sisters’ parents to allow the two other victims accompany him on charity fundraising trip with the scouts.
During this trip, he arranged that the second victim sleep in a tent alone by herself. The teenager later woke up when she felt pressure on her face and body, finding her cousin lying on top of her and attempting to put his hands inside her sleeping bag.
He succeeded, despite her efforts to push him away, before sexually assaulting her by touching her breasts.
On the same trip, the third victim went on a drive with her cousin in a van, in which he drove to an isolated spot and forcibly kissed her on the lips.
Justice Kerida Naidoo said the women had prepared victim impact statements which spoke of the serious impacts of the man’s actions on all three sisters.
The first woman described “feelings of shame, guilt, pain, and hurt”.
The second victim described “feeling different all my life” and said the abuse was like “a stain on me”, describing feeling like an empty shell in the aftermath of the assault.
The third victim described feelings of being “shocked, frightened, disgust, shame, and sorrow” and said the abuse impacted her relationships with her family.
Mr Justice Naidoo said the first victim didn’t understand what was being done to her at the time, and that the abuse of the other sisters occurred on what should have been “an innocent trip”, noting the victims had been excited to go on it.
The judge said the rape offence warranted a headline sentence of 12 years, taking into account the age of the victim at the time, the fact that it had an immediate physical impact on her, that it occurred in her own home, and the breach of trust involved.
He set headline sentences of two years for each of the sexual assaults against her.
Justice Naidoo said the mitigating factor in the offences against the first victim was the man’s age at the time of the offence and accepted that he would have lacked maturity.
He noted, however, that the accused had at the time “an age appropriate girlfriend” and said any teenager would have known it was wrong to touch such a young child in this way.
Mr Justice Naidoo imposed a sentence of eight years for the rape offence. He said the sexual assaults against the other two women involved pre-meditation and was very frightening for them.
He imposed concurrent terms for these two sexual assaults but ordered they be consecutive to the term imposed for the rape offence, leading to a global sentence of nine and half years. The final two years of this term was suspended.
by Sonya McLean
