A MAN WHO convinced a child to play sexualised games of truth or dare and later coerced her into sexual intercourse has been jailed for 18 months.

Graham Doyle (31) was a teenager when he orally raped the 13-year-old. During a relationship which he told her to keep secret he repeatedly sexually assaulted her.

He pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to four sample counts of sexual assault and one count of oral rape in Dublin on dates between 1 August, 2004 and 31 March, 2005.

Doyle of North Circular Road, Dublin, has four previous convictions for offences of defilement of a child under the age of 15 which date back to 2011. He met the teenage victim in that case on a social networking site while claiming to still be a teenager himself.

The rape victim went to gardaí in 2013 after reading about Doyle’s convictions for defilement of a child.

Justice Michael White sentenced Doyle to five years imprisonment, but suspended the final three and a half years of that sentence on condition that he be of good behaviour and engage with probation services for the entirety of that suspended period.

Justice White said that the previous convictions, which post date these offences, re-enforce that Doyle “had improper or deviant sexual tendencies”. He acknowledged that Doyle had used “severe psychological coercion” on the victim in this case.

He said the aggravating factors in the case were the seriousness of the offences, the impact they had on the victim and her age at the time of the offences.

Justice White said the mitigating factors were the early plea of guilty, Doyle’s “very genuine remorse”, his age at the time of the offences and his lack of previous convictions at the time.

He said Doyle was a minor at the time of the offending and there is an important public policy issue in sentencing an adult for their actions as a child.  

At an earlier sentence hearing, Detective Garda Lorraine Killilea told Orla Crowe SC, prosecuting, that Doyle was aged 16 when he encountered the then 13 year-old victim.

The two entered into a relationship which he convinced her to keep secret. He began to invite her to his home while his parents were absent and involved her in sexualised games of truth or dare.

On one occasion, in late 2004, Doyle signalled the victim to come into his bedroom wardrobe while her friend was in the room and made her perform oral sex on him. He talked the injured party into sexual intercourse on two occasions, the court heard.

The court heard that the four counts of sexual assault were sample counts and that the offending behaviour took place two or three times a week, coming to an end in April of 2005.

In interviews with gardaí he made admissions to the offending, but claimed he was unaware of the legal age limits at the time.