AN ARMY private, who resigned last Friday after 15 years of service, has been for two years and three months for sex assaults on a 13-year-old girl.
The girl, who is now 19, told the court earlier this month that she had full sex with 22 adult men when she was 13. She kept a diary of her encounters and a “period chart” to help her identify the father if she became pregnant.
Judge Ray Fullam yesterday imposed three years in jail on Kenneth McDonald (34), a father of three, but suspended nine months of the sentence at Donegal Circuit Court.
McDonald, Ernedale Heights, Ballyshannon, has also been placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.
He had been convicted by a jury of four counts of sexual assault between June 1st and November 30th, 2003. The offences occurred in his car near woodlands in south Donegal.
Judge Fullam said McDonald, who was 28 at the time, had taken advantage of the girl when she was legally incapable of consenting to sex because of her age. McDonald also knew at the time that she was effectively abandoned, without guidance and was “beginning on a life of promiscuity”.
The court has heard that there are to be five other prosecutions.
McDonald’s record in the Army varied from “fairly good” in the early years to “excellent” in the last few years.
A letter from Army chaplain Fr Alan Ward, written to coincide with McDonald’s resignation, said he had progressed from an “aimless and dissolute” lifestyle to a “courteous and obliging individual” following his 2004 marriage and was now “a very different and better man than he was at the time of these contemptible events”.
McDonald winked at his wife, Maggie, and she raised her hand in acknowledgement as he was led away, handcuffed to a prison officer, to start his sentence.
Judge Fullam paid tribute to gardaí and HSE personnel who looked after the girl during five years she was in care after the inquiry started in November 2003.
The judge said that from the girl’s demeanour in court, he recognised that she was a different person to what she was six years ago. Her transformation came about due to the intervention of an “anonymous and right-minded person” who went to the Garda in November 2003.
The transformation was also due to the persistence and professionalism of the Garda and HSE whose joint efforts “ensured the girl saw the value of the truth and had the courage to tell it in all its wretched aspects”.
The court heard that McDonald’s wife is standing by him. Other members of his family were also in court yesterday.
McDonald’s victim was accompanied by a social worker. There was nobody from her family there.
During the two-hour sentencing hearing, part of a victim impact report from the girl was read by Eileen O’Leary SC, prosecuting.
In it the girl said that shortly after she was taken into care in December 2003, following the start of a Garda investigation, she began taking drugs regularly to “block out the trauma”. She absconded a number of times and was rebellious.
“I missed my family and wanted and longed to be with them all the time. I started self-harming and cut my arms and legs. I overdosed a number of times.”
Then she started to change and attended courses and programmes on self-esteem and alcohol and drugs awareness. “I became aware I couldn’t live like I did any longer.” She constantly believed there was something mentally wrong with her and during that period she continually blocked out her past.
“I have had a lot of bad thoughts and worries about my past. Even now I still have horrible images in my head. I’m not totally recovered from the experiences of my childhood but I do believe I am on the road to recovery.”
Her statement added that during the investigation, her emotions were “very mixed up” and she felt she was “all over the place”. Garda Liam Feeney, who led the investigation, told the court the girl was now “most definitely on a better road by far” than he had ever seen her.
Garda Feeney told Cormac Ó Dulacháin, defending, that at one stage during the investigation there was concern that a child-sex ring was operating in the area, but that was found not to be true in any way.
“There was no ring,” the garda added.