16 year old girl raped by boys at Limerick Racecourse tells court she was 'stripped' of her innocence
Isabel Hayes
A young woman who was raped by two boys at Limerick Racecourse when she was 16 has said her attackers stripped her of her innocence and what was left of her childhood.
In a victim impact statement read out by counsel at a Central Criminal Court sentence hearing on Monday, the now 18-year-old woman said that while she has to live with what happened to her for the rest of her life, she can also live with the fact that she told the truth.
Three boys stood trial at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork earlier this year, with two of the boys (now aged 16 and 17) found guilty of sexually assaulting and raping the then 16-year-old girl in a car at Limerick Racecourse on December 26th, 2022. They were aged 13 and 15 at the time.
The third boy (18) was found guilty by the jury of four counts of aiding and abetting the rapes and sexual assaults following the six week trial. The court heard he moved the car during the course of the attack. He was 15 at the time. He was acquitted of one count of false imprisonment.
Video clips were taken of the incident by one of the boys, including one clip of the girl walking away from the car after she had been raped. When she found her friends, she was extremely upset and immediately told them what had happened to her, the court heard.
The boys denied raping the girl, telling gardaí differing versions of events including one who said he was in Dublin on the day in question. They all eventually claimed it was a consensual encounter.
Detective Garda Lisa O'Regan told Dean Kelly SC, prosecuting, that the girl was socialising with her friends at the racecourse on the day in question.
She was, in her own words, “really drunk” when she got chatting to the three boys, Mr Kelly said.
The court heard she agreed to go for a walk with one of the boys because she wanted to kiss him. Instead, she found herself in a car belonging to one of the boy's fathers where she was sexually assaulted and raped by two of them. The third boy moved the car at one point during the attack.
Victim impact statement
The girl said she told the boys “no” repeatedly and that she was on her period and had a tampon in. She said she told them she needed to go back to her friends, but they repeatedly said no and that she was “fine”.
When medically examined later that evening, she was found to have extensive bleeding and bruising. She was a virgin before the attack.
The complainant (now aged 18) was not in court for the sentence hearing in Dublin on Monday.
In a victim impact statement read out on her behalf by counsel, she described her fear and anxiety in the aftermath of the attack, during which she was “begging them to get off me”.
“At the age of 16, I had my innocence stripped away from me,” she said. “These two (boys) took what they wanted with no regrets.”
She said her parents had to hear every “vulgar” and “gruesome” detail of what happened to her and that she will “forever have guilt on my shoulders - not just for how it affected me, but everyone around me”.
“They not only took away the rest of my childhood, they took away the rest of my life,” she said. “At the age of 16, I was raped. This is always something I will have to carry around.
“But what I can do is live with the fact that I told the truth.”
The court heard the boys, who are all cousins, have no previous convictions. They are all in detention or custody since the guilty verdicts were handed down last April.
The case was adjourned for a couple of weeks for mention while probation reports are waited on. Defence pleas of mitigation are expected to be heard at a later date.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.
