A man got a tattoo as a reminder of the day he raped a 14-year-old girl, a court heard.On the second day of his Central Criminal Court trial last February, the 26-year-old admitted raping the girl in a field in Co Meath.The girl was 14 at the time of the attack in September 2022. The man was 22. They came into contact through social media and chatted for about one year before the rape occurred. The man also assaulted the girl, verbally abused and threatened her during the ordeal, which lasted between 90 minutes and three hours.They had arranged a “safe word” for when they met up, which the man ignored, the court heard. In early 2023, the man sent a photograph of a tattoo he had got, which included the word. In messages to an account set up by the girl’s boyfriend, who was pretending to be her, the man said the tattoo was a reminder of “how weak you are compared to me, I need to be reminded”.In some messages he used insults and abusive language.To protect the injured party’s right to anonymity the man cannot be named.Jailing the man for 10 years on Monday, Judge Sean Gillane said the victim impact statement spoke of the lasting consequences for the girl, but also highlighted her resilience.The judge said the man had a “very high level of culpability” and the aggravating factors included the “degrading” physical and sexual violence, manipulation and grooming of the girl, the age disparity and the “callous and ruthless language” used by the man in messages.Gillane noted the man’s guilty plea, though it was late, his expressions of remorse and a probation report stating he was beginning to understand the impact of his actions.The judge said the probation report also stated the man developed an interest in pornography at a young age and that consuming violent pornography led to “distorted” expectations around sex.The judge said 19 testimonials – all on affidavit and primarily from the man’s family – were received by the court. Gillane said this was a topic of “recent controversy” and “understandable concern”. He noted the testimonials acknowledged an awareness of the man’s offending behaviour and “spoke well of him”.However, the judge said in the context of identifying a headline sentence in a case like this, testimonials about the “perceived previous good character” carried “very little weight, if any”.He said the testimonials were more useful in assessing the possibility of rehabilitation, noting the man had the support of his pro-social family.Gillane also said the man’s ability to appear trustworthy was a way that allowed the offending to take place.The judge imposed a 12-year sentence, with the final two years suspended for five years on strict conditions.In her victim impact statement, the girl said she believed the man was someone safe that she could trust. She said she believed they had built a genuine connection, but that trust was not real and was created to manipulate her.She said what happened was more difficult to live with as it was not an accident, but “a choice to manipulate a child, a choice to take advantage of someone who trusted you”.“That is something you should carry. I have to live with the consequences every day,” she said.She said the safe word was “used against me” and the tattoo was “so humiliating”.She said she felt her vulnerability was mocked. “I hope when you look at it, you feel nothing but shame and disgust ... for choosing to get a tattoo of the word that was meant to stop.”She said she worried she could not be loved and that she would carry what he did for the rest of her life. “But you should carry something too: the responsibility, the weight, the shame of what you chose to do to a 14-year-old girl who trusted you,” she said.The girl said she was still standing and “will not let what you did define what I become”.