Mobile phone footage of sexual assault leads to sentencing

Video footage recorded on a mobile phone by the friend of two 17- year-old youths, who gave a 15-year-old schoolgirl neat vodka before one of them had sex with her and the other sexually assaulted her, led to them being sentenced.

They were sentenced to three years in prison with the final 18 months suspended at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Galway yesterday.

Harvey Simukonda, who is now aged 19, with an address at Brawney Square, Athlone, pleaded not guilty to rape but guilty to the defilement or statutory rape of the girl in an apartment in Galway city on August 1st 2012, moments before his trial was due to begin last July.

His co-accused, Jesse Edokpayi (19), with a former address in Galway city, but who now lives in Dublin, pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of the girl during the same incident. Sentence was adjourned to yesterday for the preparation of reports.

Sergeant Paudie O’Shea gave evidence the victim first met Simunkonda during the Volvo Ocean Race festivities in Galway in 2012. They arranged to meet three weeks later on August 1st, during the Galway Races.

The court heard the Junior Cert student and her 15-year-old friend went to an apartment that afternoon with the accused where they were plied with vodka.

The victim’s friend said in her statement to gardaí later that while the first vodka drink they were given had Coke in it, the second drink was “raw” or neat vodka. She did not take the second drink and advised the victim not to drink it either but was ignored.

Later that evening the victim and her friend alerted gardaí on Shop Street about what had happened and both accused were arrested.

Simunkonda admitted giving the underage victim drink but he claimed he had consensual sex with her in the bathroom at the apartment. The victim denied this in her statement to gardaí and Sgt O’Shea confirmed buttons were missing from her jeans and the zipper broken.

Five separate video clips, taped on his phone by a friend of both accused in a bedroom at the apartment between 18.46pm and 19.26pm, showed the victim lying in an unconscious or semiconscious state on the floor while being sexually assaulted by Edokpayi as Simukonda sat and watched nearby.

Evidence was heard that Simunkonda had had sex with the victim in the bathroom at some stage before the sexual assault took place in the bedroom. Sgt O'Shea confirmed both accused had no previous convictions but that Simunkonda, who is from Malawi, had been issued with a 15-day deportation warning notice in September 2013. This had not as yet been acted upon, he added.

The other accused, he said, was Nigerian. The victim was not in court due to illness but her mother was present.

In her victim impact statement, which the sergeant read to the court, the victim said she now suffers from low self-esteem, depression and suicidal tendencies. Other students in her school found out about what had happened and had made comments to her about it. She said the prospect of a trial had preyed on her for the two years since the attack and she had felt quite intimidated when she saw both accused in court last July.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Barry White said it was quite clear to see in the video clips the victim was in a paralytic state of intoxication at the time these offences were perpetrated.

He adopted the recommendations of probation reports by placing both accused under the supervision of the probation service for the 18- month suspended period of their sentence.

He also directed they abstain from alcohol and submit to urine tests by the probation service during that time.

Mr Justice White noted that being on the Sex Offenders Register was another form of punishment for both accused which would continue to affect them for the rest of their lives.