A Donegal businessman has been jailed for the defilement of a teenage girl.
Haulier Ryan Kerrigan was handed a 20-month prison sentence at Cavan Circuit Court.
Kerrigan, a 31-year-old of Shannagh, Laghey, was previously found guilty, on a 10-2 majority, by a jury at Donegal Circuit Court after a three-day trial.
Victim Delaney Leese waived her anonymity meaning that Kerrigan could be named.
He had pleaded not guilty to one count of defilement of a child under 17 years of age, an offence contrary to section 3 (1) of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, 2006.
In sentencing Kerrigan, Judge John Aylmer said that a significant age difference was an aggravating factor in the case. Kerrigan was 18 at the time while Ms Leese was 15.
“There was just short of a three-year age gap between you,” Judge Aylmer said. “I do not accept the proposition that you were in the same age group, as suggested.
“There is a significant difference between a young 15-year-old and an 18-year-old adult. A three-year age gap becomes much less significant as people grow older, but at that stage of life, an 18-year-old is considered much older than a 15-year-old.”
Judge Aylmer said that the prosecution had established that Kerrigan had “at a minimum, a reckless disregard of the precise age of the complainant”.
A further aggravating factor in the case was the impact that the offending had on the victim.
Judge Aylmer said that he accepted the proposition that the offence was on the lower end of the scale and, before mitigation was considered, merited a starting point of two years imprisonment.
As Kerrigan contested the charge in a trial, he was not entitled to a reduction for a guilty plea, but Judge Aylmer noted that he cooperated with the investigation and has had the charge hanging over him for some time.
He said Kerrigan is now a “mature adult” who is in a stable relationship and a father-of-two who has his own business. While the Probation Service deemed Kerrigan to be at a low risk of reoffending, Judge Aylmer said it was clear that the defendant largely remains “in denial” and “lacks victim empathy”.
An expression of remorse, given by Kerrigan from the witness box previously, would have to be interpreted with reference to the remarks of the Probation Service, Judge Aylmer said, also referencing that the victim indicated that the apology was a case of being too little and too late.
While Kerrigan has 17 previous convictions, all of which are for road traffic offences, Judge Aylmer said these were not relevant in this case.
The mitigating circumstances merited a reduction of the sentence to one of 20 months in prison.
However, having given the matter careful consideration, Judge Aylmer said he was not minded to suspend any portion of the sentence.
“The Court takes the view that the offence is just too serious, too grave,” Judge Aylmer said.
Kerrigan was placed in handcuffs and led away by prison officers to begin his term behind bars. As he left the courtroom, Kerrigan was embraced by members of his family, who were present.
In a victim impact statement previously read to the court, Ms Leese outlined how she deals with OCT, PTSD and flashbacks regularly, but said: “I owe my life to the little Delaney Leese that fought hard to be here today. The little girl that felt she didn’t have a voice. The little girl that didn’t see a way out, but kept putting one foot in front of the other. The little girl, despite all odds and hurdles stacked in front of her, tried to turn her life into something better. I will always be proud of who I am and where I came from.”
At the trial, Ms Leese told Ms Fiona Crawford BL, prosecuting barrister, that she was in her Junior Certificate year at school and aged 15 at the time and was friendly with Kerrigan’s sister.
They were in Kerrigan’s home, getting ready to attend a teenage disco, on the evening of the incident.
She recalled being in the house with her friend while her friend’s brother and his friend, Kerrigan – who had turned 18 – were also present. She said the two males gave them two alcoholic drinks in wine glasses.
At one stage of the evening, she said Kerrigan came into a room and started kissing her. She said this “didn’t bother” her, but later, as they were exiting another room, having got more alcoholic drinks, she said Kerrigan “grabbed me by the arm” and pulled her towards a toilet and it was there where sexual intercourse occurred.
Details of the incident were outlined in court and Ms Leese told the court that she felt “fear and shock” having been “blindsided”.
She said she was told by Kerrigan before he exited the toilet not to tell a person who he was going out with at the time.
Kerrigan was represented by Mr Garnet Orange SC, with Mr Peter Nolan BL and instructed by solicitor Mr Rory O’Brien.
Investigating Garda Claire Ramsey told the court that there was a co-accused in the case and there was an application made for separate trials.
In January 2023, Richard Walsh, then a 29-year-old of Lisminton, Ballintra was jailed for 20 months – with the last eight months of that suspended – at Letterkenny Circuit Court on a charge of defiling Ms Leese.
During the trial, Mr Orange suggested that Ms Leese had “led the way” and that she had “enthusiastically given” her consent. She told Mr Orange that it was “absolutely not” the case that she “put yourself in front” of the accused and “planned to get with him.”
“I told people that he forced me to have sex with him,” she said.
Kerrigan vehemently denied the offence when interviewed by gardai, telling detectives at one point: “I can’t understand this bullshit”.
Later, he told Gardai: “No. It’s all lies.” He said there was “full consent” to the sexual encounter.
Ms Crawford told the jury that it was her belief that the accused “never thought that that 15-year-old girl would come in front of you and be big enough, brave enough and bold enough to come in, stand in front of you and tell you what happened on that night in 2011.”
Ms Leese, now Meehan following her wedding to Aidan in 2022, in her victim impact statement, recalled how she started counselling with Jigsaw in 2013, but did not continue with a complaint as she thought the case may be heard while she was to sit her Leaving Certificate.
However, a letter from Tusla in 2017 reignited the matter: “I needed to continue with reporting what happened because I needed to know that I did everything I could to get justice for myself and to protect someone else from this happening to them”.
Ms Leese said she hoped that reading her statement aloud would “give me back the control and power that he took from me when he defiled me”.
Ms Leese outlined that she felt “like I was just an object to him – something, instead of someone, that he could just use at his disposal” and added: “I hope what I’ve said sticks with him. I hope he can see me as someone’s daughter and that my statement resonates with him and makes him see me as a person.
“Someone worth more than what he did to me. I hope it makes him feel some sort of remorse for what he did to me.
“Even though remorse can’t fix what he did to me and how it affected me and my life, it might make him stop and consider his actions.”
Tags: