Man jailed for sexual exploitation of 12-year-old girl

WORDS OF ADVICE FOR PARENTS Judge Rory McCabe. Pic: Aidan Crawley

A man has been sentenced to seven years in prison after he was convicted on charges of sexual exploitation of a 12-year-old girl from Mayo at last week’s sitting of the Circuit Criminal Court in Castlebar.
The man, who is not being named in order to protect the identity of the girl, pleaded guilty to  charges of sexual exploitation after he developed an online relationship with the young girl during 2012. The young man, who was 19 at the time of the incident, said he initially thought the girl was 17 years old, but he admitted that the relationship continued after he found out her real age.
The father of the young girl told the court, through a victim impact statement, that he now regrets letting his daughter have access to such advanced technology at such a young age. He explained that he had been told that most of the young girl’s friends used the technology.
Sergeant Emma Kerins told the court that the charges related to incidents that occurred in April 2012.
The injured party’s father said he had heard a noise in his daughter’s bedroom. As he approached the room, he heard her say ‘Did you miss me?’. When he went into the room, he found that she had her dressing gown open. As she closed it, he saw a face on the screen of her laptop, before the screen went blank.
During the investigation, it emerged that the defendant had been holding conversations over Skype with the 12-year-old girl, asking her to go topless while he masturbated.
The father took away both his daughter’s phone and laptop and he went to the Gardaí.
The girl was interviewed, and after the Gardaí examined the laptop, the defendant was identified. Gardaí subsequently visited his address in Cork on July 12, 2012, where two computers and a mobile phone were seized.

Conversations
A number of conversations between the parties were found to have taken place between April 15 and April 23. The content was graphic and exploitative. Twenty-three screen shots of  various states of undress were also recovered.
The court heard that the defendant was interviewed again in prison in 2014. He had by then received an eight-year prison sentence in February 2013 for two violent assaults, one of a sexual nature, which occurred on the one night in Cork City on December 3, 2011.
The defendant subsequently had his sentence changed by the Court of Criminal Appeal, and the last four years of the sentence have now been suspended.  He has been in custody since February 2013.
When interviewed in prison in 2014, the defendant told the Gardaí he had met the girl on BBM Messenger, a messaging service on Blackberry phones.
Reading the girl’s father’s victim impact statement, Mr Pat Reynolds, BL for the State, said the whole episode had a devastating impact on his daughter’s confidence. He said she had become withdrawn and deeply affected. She spent a lot of time alone in her room, felt embarrassed and ashamed and was worried the defendant would try and get back into contact with her. The father said the incident had also affected his relationship with his daughter.

Six weeks of activity
Mr Eoin Garavan, BL for the defence, said evidence in the case suggested that there had been six weeks of activity between the parties in the case and that his client did not deny his involvement when interviewed.
He said his client had alleged he had been sexually assaulted by a female neighbour during his childhood, and that he had issues with cocaine and alcohol abuse.
He also said his client was still serving a prison sentence for the previously mentioned assaults, and added that since being in prison, he had completed three Leaving Cert subjects. His client, who maintained the support of his family, was interested in pursuing a career in the equestrian industry, he said.  
Judge Rory McCabe said incidents of this nature always had implications for family and friends, and that the consequences could be very grave and life altering.
He said the incidents before the court could be considered grooming and were clearly for the defendant’s own sexual gratification. The charges carried a penalty of life imprisonment, and the judge said the charges were in the medium range of seriousness.
He said it was clear from the victim impact statement that real dangers lie in wait on social media. Incidents like this should serve as a ‘wake up call’ for all parents, he said, adding that it is all too easy for deviant people to make contact with others through technology.
With regard to mitigation, Judge McCabe said that he had to take into account the defendant’s plea, his mental issues and his history. The plea of guilty had also reduced stress on the injured party and her family, as they did not to give evidence as a consequence. However, he pointed out, the  Probation and Psychiatric Reports showed that the defendant had a lack of insight into what he had done, and that he did not show empathy.
He sentenced the defendant to seven years in prison on all the charges, to run concurrently, and he requested that the defendant be placed on the sexual offenders register.
Judge McCabe said he would suspend the final two years of the sentence for two years, and he directed the defendant to engage with the Probation Services for 12 months on his release. He also backdated the sentence to July 1, 2015.
The defendant was also told that he was not allowed any future contact with the injured party on his release. The judge said this should bring closure to the injured party’s family.