A 33 year-old man sent text messages that were sexually explicit in nature to a 16 year-old girl, a District Court has heard.
Kealy Cuddihy with an address of 4, An Cladrach, Ballinrobe, appeared before Claremorris District Court where he pleaded guilty to sending 54 text messages to the girl over a four hour period on May 9, 2016.
The court heard that Cuddihy acquired the girl’s phone number from classified website ‘Gumtree’ after the girl put her details on the site looking for a part time job.
The father of one texted her on the date in question and said he was 18 and that his father owned a hotel and there was a job available.
Text messages that followed asked the girl to come for an interview for the position wearing revealing clothes and underwear.
A print-out of the text messages were handed into the court to Judge Mary Devins, who noted that the girl engaged in the text messages.
The court was told that the girl informed her mother about the texts and they went to the local garda station to report it. Gardaí rang the phone and Mr Cuddihy answered and admitted to sending the texts.
Detained
He was detained on December 7 and made full admissions in relation to attempting to coerce the girl into revealing intimate details about herself.
Solicitor Cathy McDarby said her client had lost his job as a result of the incident and was expecting a second child with his partner, who was aware of the incident.
Ms McDarby said when asked if he would have met up with the girl, her client said he absolutely wouldn’t have.
She added that all 54 messages were replied to, to which Judge Devins commented that the 16-year-old must have some responsibility and that it could have been a case that the girl and her boyfriend were laughing at the male. The court was told that her boyfriend became involved in replying to the texts also.
Judge Devins described the case as ‘nothing on the extreme side of obscene’ but said it may be put down to ‘social inadequacies’ on Mr Cuddihy’s part.
The matter was put back to October 18 awaiting a Probation Report.
