A young father who raped a 15-year-old girl during a teenage birthday party has been jailed for seven years.Patrick Faulkner (24) was 18 when he raped the then teenager during a birthday party for another teenage girl. Faulkner denied the charge but was convicted of rape by a jury after a Central Criminal Court trial sitting in Limerick last February.Faulkner, with an address at Lower Mallow Street in Limerick city, does not accept the jury verdict and continues to maintain that the schoolgirl consented to the sexual activity.At the sentence hearing Lily Buckley, prosecuting, told the court the victim wished to waive her anonymity so Faulkner could be named.Imposing sentence on Monday, Judge Eileen Creedon commended the young woman for her “courage and honesty” in giving evidence at trial and providing a “very powerful” victim-impact statement.She noted the woman outlined the heavy toll the rape has had on her life and the mental trauma she has suffered as a result. It has impacted her ability to trust others.The judge acknowledged that Faulkner did not accept the verdicts of the jury and maintained that all sexual interactions with the then teenager were consensual.She accepted he had a right to contest the charges against him but said that left “very little by way of mitigation” available to the court to reduce the headline sentence of 8½ years.The judge imposed a sentence of 7½ years taking into account the man’s young age at the time of the offending and his co-operation with the Garda investigation. She suspended the final six months of the term for a year.Det Garda Denise Moriarty told the court that on the date of the offence the teenager had been at school and had changed her clothes before going to the party. There was adult supervision at the house for the early part of the evening.The detective said the victim had consumed some Blue Wkd “and some cans” and there was also “some vodka drink” at the party. She said the victim did not know Faulkner but knew of him as a cousin of hers was friendly with some of his family.She said that during the evening Faulkner asked her to go upstairs with him, but she said ‘no’. Later she went upstairs by herself to charge her phone and he followed her up into a bedroom.She told gardaí that they kissed and he then put his fingers inside her. At this point she told him to stop as she was aware that “matters were getting out of her control”, the garda testified.Faulkner pulled the gusset of her bodysuit to one side and raped her as she repeatedly told him “Stop, Patrick”.Shortly after the rape, the girl ran out of the house but on the way out she told a friend she had been raped. That same night she sent a message into a friend’s Snapchat group called “Virgins XOX” saying “I’m after being raped [by] Patrick Faulkner, I’m bawling”.She also said in this group: “I kept telling him ‘no, get off me’ but he wouldn’t.”After his arrest Faulkner told gardaí that the 15-year-old had initiated the sexual activity and that it was all consensual.Faulkner has a number of previous convictions including one for harassment. In that offence, committed two months before this rape, Faulkner had approached a girl in a public place on two occasions in July 2020 and asked her to have sex with him for money.He was given a suspended sentence of 18 months on November 11th, 2023, at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court. Faulkner also has convictions for public-order offences, assault and road-traffic offences.Patrick O’Sullivan, defending, told the court that since this offence his client had married, had two children and had settled down. Faulkner’s wife testified that he was a good husband and father and a support to her in the care of their young son who has ongoing health issues.In her victim-impact statement, the complainant said that she was a child when Faulkner raped her.“I did not have the emotional tools or life experience to cope,” she said. She said the rape left her struggling with her mental health and that she continues to suffer with flashbacks that come without warning and bring her back to the attack.“The sense of safety I once had was taken from me,” she said. She outlined that she has self-harmed and also attempted suicide.She said she was working hard to heal but that it was “a long, painful process”.“Coming forward and talking about what happened has been extremely difficult. The truth matters and what happened to me was wrong,” she said.