Teenager handed custodial sentence at Craigavon Crown Court for raping child who became pregnant
A teenager who got a child pregnant when he raped her when she was drunk has been handed a 28-month sentence.
Ordering 19-year-old Christopher McCord, c/o Hydebank YOC, to serve half his sentence in custody and half under supervised licence conditions, Judge Patrick McGurgan emphasised that guideline authorities were clear in he had to sentence “on the basis of the child you were, rather than the adult you are”.
He told Craigavon Crown Court while the defendant’s youth and guilty plea were mitigating factors, there were also multiple aggravating features including the age and vulnerability of the victim, the harm caused to her and the fact the rape resulted in a pregnancy and ultimately, a termination.
At an earlier hearing Co. Down man McCord entered a guilty plea to raping the girl in 2023.
During his sentencing remarks, Judge McGurgan told the court how the offending came to light when the child, who at that stage was not a teenager, told her mum she was pregnant.
The child also told her mum that McCord “was the father” after he had unprotected sex with her when she was drunk.
When officers went to arrest the defendant, he tried to run off but he was apprehended and arrested, refusing to answer police questions during later interviews.
Following the termination, police conducted forensic tests which “provided extremely strong support for the proposition the defendant was the father”.
During an Achieving Best Evidence video interview with police, the child victim told detectives she had been drinking alcohol at a former retail lot when she met the defendant and despite telling him her age, he had unprotected sex with her.
When that evidence was put to McCord during further interviews, he claimed he thought she was older, but conceded that even then, she was still below the age of consent.
Judge McGurgan said McCord had also put forward “an element of victim blaming,” in that he claimed the girl had been with other boys, a claim which she denied.
The judge added however, that the forensic evidence “was pretty conclusive” that McCord had raped the girl.
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The court heard that having been remanded into custody, McCord had made a phone call where he was recorded telling another person, “it’s my own f****** fault.”
The teenager was also recorded telling the other person that when he gets out, he is going to “buck the legs” of several girls that he named, while going on a “complete rampage…taking everything I can get the hold of.”
McCord also declared that he intended to trick the victim into meeting him so that “I can beat the head clean off her.”
Judge McGurgan said it was likely his claims were more in keeping with bravado rather than actual intention.
In addition to the custodial sentence, the judge also imposed a seven-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order and a 10-year restraining order in favour of the victim.
Having ordered McCord to stand up in the dock, Judge McGurgan stressed to the defendant, that “to use your words, if you buck the legs of anybody,” or if he breached any aspect of any of the orders he imposed, “you will be facing a significant prison term”.