Co Down teenager who forced young girl to commit sex act walks free from court as sentence is suspended

Sentencing Shea McArdle at Newry Crown Court, Judge Paul Ramsey KC told the 18-year-old the seriousness of the case and the significant harm he had caused his victim, who was just 13 at the time, meant there was “no doubt” that the custody threshold had been crossed.

He added however taking account of the fact the defendant was 15 when he attacked the victim so he himself was still a child, there had been no further offending in the intervening three years and McArdle’s “low intellectual ability,” he was suspending the sentence for three years.

At an earlier hearing McArdle, from the Drone Hill Road in Corbet, near Banbridge, entered a guilty plea to a single charge of rape.

Summarising the facts of the “troubling case” during his sentencing remarks today, Judge Ramsey said it was on 12 June 2022 when the police received a 999 call from the teenager’s father that his daughter had been sexually assaulted the night before.

The victim told police she had been walking down the road in Cranfield Co Down when a male she did not know called her over but when she did, he “pushed her down a road, away from friends and proceeded to sexually assault her.”

“She was crying during the incident,” the judge told the court adding that when McArdle was on the ground, “she managed to get away” and ran back to her friends.

While the victim was taken to the rape enquiry centre to be examined, McArdle was arrested but he denied the incident during police interviews.

Revealing that IQ tests put McArdle in the bottom 4% of the population, Judge Ramsey further revealed that according to defence reports the teenager, “struggles to grasp abstract concepts such as consent” and “is a young man with sexual entitlement beliefs.”

Despite those aspects and an assessment that McArdle is a “medium likelihood of reoffending,” the judge said he was satisfied McArdle did not fall to be sentenced as a dangerous offender as he has a stable home environment and a stable job.

Turning to issues relating to the young victim, Judge Ramsey said although there may be a perception that the court focuses on a defendant to the detriment of a victim “nothing can be further from the truth.”

He told the court while he would not open all of the details of the Victim Impact Statements he had received from the teenage schoolgirl and her parents, it was clear the attack has had significant consequences.

The judge said the victim recounts how she has “bad nights having flashbacks,” suffers from panic attacks and episodes of self harming and she has been attending counselling.

The girl’s parents had written how their daughter “used to be happy all the time…whereas now she spends all day in the bedroom, not communicating.”

Her ordeal has impacted upon her friendships and he school life and her mum had to “spend endless nights” sleeping alongside her daughter to reassure her.

As well as the suspended prison sentence, McArdle was also ordered to sign the police sex offenders register indefinitely and he was also made the subject of a ten year Sexual Offences Prevention Order.