Former scout leader jailed for rape and sexual assault of three sisters

A FORMER Scout leader who raped a young cousin causing her to pass out and who sexually assaulted her two teenage sisters on a scouting trip ten years later 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 jury following and eight day trial at the Central Criminal Court last February.

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 against her. 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 a half and 18-years-old.

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-twenties. These offences occurred between May and September 1991.

The women reported the abuse to gardaí in 2019. The man continues to deny the offences.

At an earlier sentencing hearing, the court heard the first incident of indecent assault against the first sister involved him touching her vagina after carrying her upstairs and removing her underwear. He was babysitting her at the time.

In the second incident he asked her to touch his penis and then kiss it. She was encouraged to touch the teenager as if it was a game. She later recalled being disgusted by the incident.

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.

Years later she told gardaí that before she woke in the bathroom, she had been in a bedroom with her cousin who was encouraging her to bounce on the bed. She found herself lying down before the teenager raped her.

She concluded that she must have passed out as she found the incident “tremendously shocking”.

The court heard that ten 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. She found her cousin lying on top of her and attempting to get his hands inside her sleeping bag.

He succeeded, despite her efforts to push him away before he sexually assaulted her by touching her breasts.

On the same trip, the third victim went on a drive with her cousin in a van. He drove to an isolated spot and when they both got out of the vehicle, he walked towards her, grabbed her by the elbows and forcibly kissed her on the lips.

Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo said the women had prepared victim impact statements which, he said, spoke of the “serious” impacts the man’s actions had on all three sisters.

The first woman described “feelings of shame, guilt, pain and hurt”. She found herself being a hyper vigilant parent which led to her children being restricted in the activities they take part in. She outlined the impact the offences had on her relationships with her extended family.

The second woman said in her victim impact statement that “it takes a lot of strength” to report such incidences to gardaí but she encouraged other victims to “first pause and take a breath because you are stronger than you think”.

She recommended that victims also find a person they can talk to about the abuse.

This victim described “feeling different all my life” and said the abuse was like “a stain on me” and described 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.

She said she “oppressed my own emotions” as a form of survival but said that came at a cost for her and said the impact of the abuse is something that she will have to live with forever.

Mr Justice Naidoo said the first victim didn’t understand what was being done to her at the time and said the abuse of the other sisters should have been “an innocent trip” and noted that they 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 at the time the accused had “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 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 the overall sentence were suspended.