Donegal man jailed for oral rape of girl, 14, when he was 16

A young Donegal man who was 16 when he orally raped a 14-year-old girl has been jailed for one year.

Jason McLaughlin of Cashel, Gleneely, Co Donegal pleaded guilty to oral rape at a place in Culdaff on an unknown date in January 2022. The court heard that McLaughlin got the young girl to perform oral sex on him after they met behind Culdaff filling station.

Fionnuala O'Sullivan SC, prosecuting, told the court that the injured party wished to have McLaughlin named but did not wish for her name to be published. The parties knew each other and the victim had arranged to meet McLaughlin to borrow a phone charger.

Before imposing sentence on Thursday, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring said it was “worrying” that the defendant “is still saying that the activity was consensual”, referring to the Probation Service report before the court. She also noted that McLaughlin told the Probation Services the injured party was “lying.”

Ms O'Sullivan told Justice Ring that while it is the position of Director of Public Prosecution (DPP)  that the complainant could not legally consent because of her age the DPP does not accept any assertion that she did consent.

Justice Ring noted as aggravating factors the breach of trust and the fact that the defendant had overpowered the victim. She also noted that the injured party had reluctantly gone with McLaughlin to a dark place on a January night, where she was isolated and away from others.

Ms Justice Ring said she was taking into consideration as mitigating factors his lack of previous convictions, his employment record, that he has not come to any adverse garda attentions since this incident and that he comes from a “good supportive family”.

The judge said, “This is sadly yet another case where there was a lack of knowledge or a disregard for consent.” She highlighted that consent is an active discussion and that the days of “she did not fight back or run away have passed.” 

She said there are not enough people speaking out on social media about consent. The judge said that McLaughlin had accessed pornography from a young age and that “pornography may be freely accessible, but it comes with a heavy price of jail.”

Ms Justice Ring sentenced McLaughlin to two and a half years in prison and suspended the final 18 months for one year. She also placed him under the supervision of the Probation Services for one year post-release, and that he carry out all directions deemed necessary by them.

She ordered that the token of remorse brought to court by McLaughlin in the sum of €10,000 be paid to the injured party in January 2026.

“Sadly, in the last month alone, two young men from good families with no previous convictions have ended up serving prison sentences. As a society, we must do better for both the defendants and the injured parties,” the judge said.

Garda John Gallagher told Ms O’Sullivan that on the night of the incident, the victim had a row with her mother over a phone charger. She contacted McLaughlin and another boy and asked to meet them to borrow a charger.

When they met, the defendant asked the girl if she wanted to “go with him,” but she said no and said she had a boyfriend. The two went behind a filling station, then, while there, he “digitally penetrated her and placed his penis into her mouth,” Garda Gallagher testified. 

Afterwards the defendant went back to his friend, who was waiting in a tractor, and the girl ran home and was crying.

The offending came to light in July that year after the girl told her mother what had happened. When gardai interviewed McLaughlin in 2023, he confirmed that he was aged 16 at the time and knew she was aged 14. He told gardaí that she had given him a “blow job” and he had ejaculated.

Gda Gallagher agreed with Shane Costelloe SC, defending, that his client came from a good family and that he had never come to adverse garda attention before or since this offence. Counsel handed in three character references which “speak to his character and view this crime as out of character”.

Mr Costelloe said his client was naive and “struggled to understand the ways of the world.” He said that while he had received some sexual education in school, this did not extend to the law around consent. 

He submitted to the court that since 2022, the Department of Education has run a programme in secondary school dealing specifically dealing with the issue of consent. Justice Ring noted that the courts are regularly seeing criminal convictions of sexual offending, which include evidence of preschoolers accessing porn.

The judge said that in light of that, “secondary level consent conversations seem a bit late in 2025.” She said that accessing of porn from a young age “is a sadly constant theme in this court where offending young males are involved”.