A teenage boy, who sexually assault a child and held her in a chokehold where she then passed out in a bunch of nettles, is due to be sentenced in the New Year.
The defendant, who cannot be named due to his age, appeared in Newry Crown Court on Monday for sentencing on a single count of sexually assaulting a child under the age of 13, non-fatal strangulation or asphyxiation, and two counts of possessing an indecent photograph of a child.
His Honour Judge Ramsey outlined both the prosecution and defence submissions in the case but informed both counsels that he would adjourn sentencing until a full understanding of the defendant’s custodial and subsequent care situation can be assessed.
However, the court heard that the young victim was playing with young children. An adult witness – the other children’s father – described how she’d been around playing with his young children, and afterwards, went on her own to a nearby park.
He recalled the victim arriving at his door some 40 minutes later, “in a state of great distress”. She had nettles stings, cuts to her face and head, and she said, ‘it’s [the defendant], I don’t know what he’s done to me. I lost my phone. I don’t know where my phone is’.
Police and ambulance attended a short time later. Police spoke with paramedics at the scene, and the victim was taken to hospital.
She told police that the defendant initially touched her inappropriately over her clothes.
The defendant then asked the other children present in the park if they wanted to play Hide and Seek. When the victim was alone in the play park; she sat on the bench – he was on the swing. He kept asking her to play Truth or Dare, to which she felt uncomfortable.
She also told police that he smelled of alcohol.
He put her arms around her shoulders and repeatedly touched her thigh and tried to put his hands down her leggings at the front.
She told him she wasn’t comfortable and he stopped. He then asked her to go to the field behind the play park. Initially, she said no, but then she agreed. This is when he got his arm and put it around her neck like a headlock. She remembers him squeezing, thinking he was messing about, asking him to stop. Then she couldn’t breathe and she thinks she passed out and woke up alone in a bunch of nettles.
The police then arrested the defendant. They seized his mobile phone and the subsequent examination revealed two indecent images. A sample of the web history was also examined and some “disturbing matters” were discovered.
Dr Boyd supplied a medical report to the court, which found high pressure around the victim’s neck consistent with strangulation – severe enough to interrupt blood flow to the brain.
She had also suffered severe swelling and bruising to her face.
The report also referenced a “history of urinary incontinence, tongue biting, confusion, amnesia, non steadiness, all in keeping with hypoxia in the brain, and a possible seizure”.
Judge Ramsey also reference a victim impact statement, supplied by the girl’s mother, in which it “sets out the profound impact the offending has had upon [the victim’s] mental health”.
However, given the complications around the sentencing exercise, Judge Ramsey adjourned the case for a review of the relevant factors he will have to consider when it comes to sentencing.
The case was re-listed for January 7.
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