Four year prison sentence for raping eight-year-old cousin

A 28-year-old man has been sentenced to four years imprisonment at the Central Criminal Court for sexually abusing his eight-year-old cousin in County Sligo over a decade ago. The defendant pleaded guilty to five counts of oral rape committed in summer 2012, when he was aged 15. The abuse came to light in 2020 when the injured party disclosed it to her mother. During sentencing, the court heard a victim impact statement describing the lasting psychological harm caused. Mr Justice Paul McDermott imposed a four-year sentence, having considered a nine-year baseline for an adult before reducing it to account for the defendant's age at the time of offending. The judge noted the offending involved grooming and exploitation of trust. The defendant, who has been in custody since voluntarily returning from the United Kingdom in September 2024, intends to relocate abroad upon release.