A young woman has asked a judge to publicly name the father of her child who was found guilty of defiling her when she was just 15 years old.
Carl Heaton was 35 when he had sex with the girl on three occasions in Co Donegal in 2008.
The girl subsequently had a baby boy who is now four years old.
Heaton told the girl he wanted to marry her and even gave her an engagement ring.
Heaton, of Lartigue Village in Listowel, Co Kerry, is already serving a prison sentence for other offences.
He appeared in handcuffs at Letterkenny Circuit Court charged with three offences of defilement against the young woman under the Criminal Law Sexual Offences Act.
He pleaded guilty to all three offences.
The court was told that Heaton, a former soldier, had sex with the girl when she was invited to his own daughter’s sixteenth birthday party.
A relationship developed with Heaton initially claiming he did not know the girl’s age.
The relationship continued for a number of months with Heaton contacting the girl by phone and text on a number of occasions.
The court heard the girl’s mother knew about the relationship and said she would “see how it developed.”
The charges against Heaton relate to two offences at the Atlantic Guest House in Donegal Town on September 14th, 2008 and another at Drumbeg, Inver when he admitted having sex with the girl in his car beside the beach.
Defence barrister John Whelan SC said it was not a case that Heaton was a predator but that the relationship was a mutual infatuation.
However, in her victim impact statement, the girl said that Heaton “put me through hell.”
On one occasion he texted from his daughter’s phone and pretended he had been in a serious car crash, that he was on life support and that she should come and see him.
She said the best thing that happened to her was the birth of her son.
“The birth of my son gave me a reason to live and I love him to bits. I want to make sure my son’s life doesn’t end like mine,” she said.
She had since completed her Junior Cert and did very well.
When asked by Judge John O’Hagan if she had plans for a career, the young woman revealed she wanted to be a social worker.
Judge John O’Hagan said every case is different and each sentence must be tailor-made.
“I don’t know if it was love or infatuation or what it was,” he said.
However he said Heaton took advantage of a young girl of 15 and persisted in following her.
He sentenced Heaton to three years in prison and suspended the last year of the term.
He ordered the sentence to run concurrently with the sentence he is currently serving which means Heaton is due for release in October 2014.