{"id":337231,"date":"2026-03-09T17:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/337231\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T17:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:08:07","slug":"my-heart-drops-boy-sexually-assaulted-girl-13-at-sleepover-in-limerick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/337231\/","title":{"rendered":"‘My heart drops’: Boy sexually assaulted girl, 13, at sleepover in Limerick"},"content":{"rendered":"

A BOY who sexually assaulted a girl, 13, on a sleepover was before Limerick Circuit Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

State Barrister John O\u2019Sullivan, confirming the facts with Garda Lisa O\u2019Connor, said that the pair had met up in 2022 to have a sleepover in Limerick at the boy’s home – which was a regular occurrence at the time.<\/p>\n

The boy was in sixth class of primary school , while the victim was in her first year of secondary school.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Limerick woman charged with five shop thefts denied bail by district court<\/a><\/p>\n

The girl said in a garda interview that, on the night, the boy was acting \u201cweird\u201d, and asked if she wanted to have sex to see what it was like. The girl told garda\u00ed: \u201cI was like no. I will wait until I\u2019m older because I was, like, literally 13 at the time\u201d.<\/p>\n

When the pair went to bed, she said she believed the boy was masturbating behind her, but she didn\u2019t see him doing so as her back was turned. The boy moved her underwear to the side, and attempted to put his penis in her vagina. The boy also squeezed the girl\u2019s buttock and her breast.<\/p>\n

The girl then made disclosures of the assault to a friend, a youth worker and her mother.<\/p>\n

The boy, 17, has pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault, and cannot be named due to reporting restrictions.<\/p>\n

The girl said in her victim impact statement that following the assault, she experiences panic attacks and \u201chorrible\u201d flashbacks. \u201cI just want to crawl out of my skin so that it will stop\u201d, the girl wrote.<\/p>\n

The impact statement, read by Mr O\u2019Sullivan, said that she has \u201cdifficulty trusting or feeling safe with men\u201d, \u201cincluding her stepfather\u201d and \u201cmale teachers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people say the word sexual assault or even sex, my heart drops\u201d. The girl further wrote: \u201cIt is hard waiting for an update on the case, it puts me on edge.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were lots of times I felt I shouldn\u2019t have disclosed\u201d, the statement followed.<\/p>\n

Previously, the children’s mothers had been friends which changed after the disclosure of abuse. \u201cEverybody took sides. We lost half our family\u201d, the girl wrote.<\/p>\n

The girl described the boy as being her \u201cbest friend\u201d, and said that it was difficult to see him live as \u201cnormal\u201d, following the assault. \u201cI never got to live a normal teenage life like everyone around me and I\u2019ll always resent that,\u201d the statement concluded.<\/p>\n

In a garda interview the boy made admissions, and said he believed her to be asleep at the time of the assault. When the boy was asked if he would have done it when she was awake, he said no.<\/p>\n

In mitigation, BL Yvonne Quinn said the assault was \u201ca once-off incident\u201d, and that the boy has no previous convictions. She stated that he participates in pro-social activities, such as rugby, and that he has since engaged in counselling to learn about \u201chealthy relationships\u201d.<\/p>\n

The barrister said: \u201cHe has let himself down, he has let his friend down, and his wider family\u201d.<\/p>\n

Referring to the victim, Ms Quinn said: \u201cI\u2019m conscious that she\u2019s listening to this\u201d, and noted that, \u201cHe was the one in the wrong, he was at fault\u201d, not the girl.<\/p>\n

Ms Quinn said the boy is \u201cashamed and embarrassed\u201d. The barrister asked the court to note the teenager’s age, and his right to education under the Children\u2019s Act. Ms Quinn said he is undertaking his Leaving Cert in June.
Judge Colin Daly adjourned sentencing to a date in late March.<\/p>\n

-Funded by the Court Reporting Scheme\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A BOY who sexually assaulted a girl, 13, on a sleepover was before Limerick Circuit Court. State Barrister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,1396,44],"class_list":["post-337231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-limerick","tag-limerick-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}