Yesterday at a sitting of Dublin Central Criminal court two teenage boys had their three year custodial sentences for sexual assault fully suspended under strict conditions.
In 2020 the two boys trapped and sexually assaulted a teenage girl in Limerick after they took her phone and attempted to force her to perform oral sex on them.
After threats involving the phone failed the boys attempted to physically force the 14 year old victim into submission.
The first attacker, who was 15 at the time, pleaded guilty to attempted oral rape, four counts of sexual assault and one count of assault causing harm.
The second who was then 14, pleaded guilty to attempted oral rape and four counts of sexual assault on the same occasion.
Justice Paul McDermott told the boys, now aged 17, that he was giving them a chance to do the right thing by suspending the sentences on condition that they fully engage with a set of rehabilitation programs.
The judge is reported as saying that he saw “very negative consequences” for both of the boys if they went into custody , but that he saw “potential” for both of them “to do better” with their lives “given this opportunity.”
“You will have to engage with anyone you are asked to engage with, basically do what you’re told. I will have no hesitation imposing the three-year detention if you don’t do as you’re told,” he added.
As a former 15 year old I can think back to how my male peers behaved towards girls.
While I was more content to read or listen to music than hang around with boys, I do remember the lads in my circle of geeky-skater-indie-rock-loving friends occasionally making cheeky jokes, or drinking slightly too much which sometimes led to awkward confessions of affection for one of the girls in the group – pretty innocent stuff.
Never in a million years would I imagine any of those lads – and I’m fully sure they all had access to internet pornography as this wasn’t that long ago – gang up on a defenceless girl and attempt to violently force her to preform lewd acts on them.
There appears to have been a cultural shift in attitudes regarding sex and respect for the dignity of women and girls.
I recently spoke to Marina Porter, director of a rape crisis centre in Donegal who said the service was “inundated” with under 18s seeking help after sexual assault.
Porter told me that huge numbers of young teenagers were seeking help saying, “We have so many young people 13, 14, 15 year olds who are experiencing sexual violence”.
She continued that “Young girls are getting badly beaten as well as sexually assaulted and raped”.
At this point I could refer to the ever loudening public discourse on how violent pornography is supposedly contributing to violent sexual behaviour among adolescents, and indeed, adults.
For example, here has also been a surge in popularity of pornographic content featuring two males and one female.
Personally I have little doubt that this is a huge contributing factor to cases like this one.
Even so, a 15 year old is capable of understanding why it’s highly inappropriate to try and force yourself on another person sexually – in terms of morality that’s abc level stuff.
So the two teenage boys effectively received a judicial slap on the backside for what they attempted to do to that poor girl.
They get to enjoy their anonymity and – should they abide by the court’s directions – resume their lives more or less as though nothing had happened.
All this despite their complete contempt for the wellbeing of the girl they mercilessly attacked and disrespected.
Far from being a moment of madness in a hormone fuelled tryst between a pair of lust stricken teenagers – these two lads actively ganged up and repeatedly attempted to force the girl to preform oral sex on them.
Their vile actions show plainly that to them that girl was just a contemptible body – a creature deserving of no form of respect.
She was someone they felt entitled to dishonour, injure, and traumatise.
Although Judge McDermott said he viewed the boys’ actions as “very serious” offences – this writer would suggest that to teenagers, especially, words like that might not really mean very much.
Rather, an obligatory stay at an American style boot camp where military style obedience is drilled into them would, in my view, achieve the dual task of reforming their characters – teaching them about respect and consequences – while also acting as a deterrent to others inclined to try forcing themselves on another person.
Suspended sentences in cases like these just don’t cut it.