Junior infant pupil's father accused teenager of raping his son on Facebook, court hears
A father of a four-year-old boy accused a teenager of raping his son on Facebook, a court has heard.
At Ennis Circuit Court today, the accused told a Garda of the boy’s father’s Facebook rape accusation in a cautioned interview where he repeatedly denied sexually abusing the then junior infant pupil.
In the case, the teenager denies a defilement charge and a sexual assault charge during 2014.
The alleged victim was aged four at the time and the accused - now aged 20 - was aged 15 at the time.
The four-year-old told his mother of the alleged sex act after medics diagnosed him having anal genital warts in March 2015.
In a Garda interview in May 2015, after he was arrested on suspicion for the alleged rape of the four-year-old, the teenager told Det. Garda Donal Corkery: “I didn’t touch him for the ninth time.”
Asked by Det. Corkery why the four-year-old named the teenager concerning the alleged sex act, the teenager replied: “He is a muppet.”
The jury heard that on the fourth day of the trial, Det. Corkery told the accused during the interview that the four-year-old had alleged that he had carried out a sexual act on him and in response, the teenager stated: “He is an absolute liar.”
The sex act is alleged to have occurred in the teenager’s bedroom and the teenager said that the four-year-old was never in his bedroom.
The teenager later told Det. Corkery: “I could be framed here - they could have done it to the child to frame me.”
He said: “I didn’t rape him or abuse him. I‘m 100% sure.”
The accused told Det. Corkery that the boy’s mother put him up to it to make the allegation.
In his closing speech, counsel for the State, Patrick McGrath SC stated that while there is no corroboration in the case there is very compelling evidence for the jury to convict the accused.
Mr McGrath said that there is no reason why the boy would make up the allegation and that he has shown remarkable consistency in the allegation.
He said that it is worth noting the boy was also able to tell the correct colour of the teenager’s bedroom even though the teenager said that the boy was never in his bedroom.
Judge Gerald Keys is to give his charge to the jury on Monday morning and they will then retire to consider their verdict.
