A man who sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl in Newry has been jailed.
Robert Radlak, previously of Newry but now with an address of Crosscollyer Street in Belfast, will spend eight months behind bars with another eight months on licence.
The 39-year-old appeared in Newry Crown Court on Wednesday charged with a single count of sexual assault of a child, which occurred on May 18 last year.
His Honour Judge Paul Ramsey, in outlining the facts of the case, said that shortly before 8pm the injured party’s mother called police to tell them her daughter had returned home from a friend’s house where the father – Radlak – “had kissed her on the neck and then put his hand under her trousers”.
Judge Ramsey said the friends had been playing outside and decided to go inside. They went into Radlak’s bedroom and it was at this point Radlak, who had locked the door behind him, said he was “going to massage them with a massager”.
The child said she then fell asleep and when she woke up Radlak had unzipped trousers and had a different massage machine near her private part.
He then started to kiss her neck and asked her an sexual question, to which she replied, “no”.
He then said for her “not to tell her mummy”. The girl went to the toilet, then ran home, before telling her mother immediately what had happened.
Police attended and cautioned Radlak before a white massage gun was seized by the police from his bedroom.
Radlak told police that the girl had been at his home when “my son hit her with a ball to the leg, and I suggested a massage to that place”.
As for his defence, “he was able to offer very little insight into his actions and says he didn’t know why he behaved that way”.
The court heard he is no longer the primary carer for his children and has been assessed as being a low likelihood of reoffending.
Referencing the child’s Victim Impact Statement, Judge Ramsey said: “The child has said that since this happened to her, things have been different for her. It’s really hard for me to be able to sleep at night, and when she does, she has bad dreams and they wake me up.
“Her mother, since the incident, has noticed that her emotional well-being and mental health hasn’t been the same, and she is more anxious about what happened to her, and she’s gone from being an alert, carefree child to someone who’s now worried and avoids situations where there are men about.”
Judge Ramsey handed Radlak a 16-month sentence half of which will be served in custody.
He was also placed him on the sex offenders register for a period of five years. A Sexual Offences Prevention Order was not imposed.
