Man jailed for having sexual relationship with girl, 14
Marcin Kaczmarek, of Lodgewood, Kenmare, Co Kerry, will also be placed on the sex offenders register for a period of 10 years.
He had pleaded guilty in May at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee to charges of defilement, sexual assault, and digital penetration of a schoolgirl he had initially met through Facebook and later, engaged in sexual activities with, at a sports pitch in Co Kerry in 2014.
The accused was 19 when the offences began, while the girl was aged 14. Contact between the pair began in July 2013 through social media.
The schoolgirl detailed the activities in her diary and the offences came to light when her father read her diary amid concern about her behaviour.
Contact between the two began via Facebook in July 2013, the court heard last week. Tom Rice, prosecuting, outlining the details as a previous sitting, said Kaczmarek gave the girl a necklace and their sexual activities took place at night.
Yesterday, Judge John Hannan said that although both were teenagers, the “gulf” in age was great.
“She was very much a child in third year, going to do her Junior Cert,” he said. “He was 19. And whilst both were in their teens, that age gap of five years is very considerable for persons in their teens.”
He also noted there was an emotional as well as an age “imbalance”, saying the pair were at “entirely different stages of development” — one still close to being a child, the other an adult.
Judge Hannan referred to the victim impact statement given last week by the now 17-year-old, saying she was “emotionally scarred”, and had been physically and mentally ill as a result of the relationship. She had clearly been harmed, the judge said.
Kaczmarek, who had never come to the notice of gardaí before or since, was assessed as having a very low risk of reoffending. Alone in court yesterday, it emerged he had little family support and was extremely shy. Judge Hannan said a custodial sentence was merited and sentenced him to four years in jail, but suspended 32 months.
“It gives me no great pleasure to me to do this they are both young people,” said Judge Hannan.
Anthony Sammon, for Kaczmarek, asked for the involvement of the probation services rather than a jail term , saying this was, at the end of the day, a relationship between teenagers, even if it did run foul of the criminal law age factors.
“Clearly because of age differential, one would be concerned,” he said. “Age parameters are clearly set in criminal law but one does live in the real world and it’s clear to anybody that a great deal of sexual activity does take place among young people, regardless of legal parameters,” he said.
