A MAN who sexually abused and groomed a young girl from the time she was just 10 years old has been jailed for seven years, with one year suspended.
The paedophile, now in his 50s, pleaded guilty to sample charges of sexual assault, sexual exploitation, and possession of child pornography.
The young woman said in her victim impact statement that her abuser told her not to tell anyone about the illegal intimacy, as it was “our little secret”.
Sentencing, Judge Colin Daly said in Limerick Circuit Court that while the defendant had pleaded guilty, he also “evaded the law” for almost eight years after first being arrested in relation to the case.
The court heard that the sexual abuse started in 2010, when the girl was aged 10 and the man was in his 40s, and continued until the girl was 15.
The victim made a formal complaint to Gardaí when she was 16.
The man pleaded guilty to six sample charges, including three counts of sexual assault on the girl, two counts of sexual exploitation of the girl, and one count of possession of child sex abuse images.
He has been included on a sex offenders register for an indefinite period, the court heard.
Prosecuting barrister John O’Sullivan, assisted by Garda Mark McGauley, said the victim saw the man touch his own genitals on multiple occasions, and told her “she was ‘beautiful” and a “special girl”, Mr O’Sullivan told the court.
The man would also put the victim’s hand on his penis and put his fingers into her vagina.
“He told her, ‘This is our little secret’,” Mr O’Sullivan told the court.
It was heard that the man sent the girl 10 images of his genitals and asked her to send him images of her private parts – the court heard that she sent him 20 photos and one video.
In an effort to conceal his offending, the man instructed the girl to delete the files from her phone. The court heard the material could not be recovered.
The offences came to light when a friend of the young girl became concerned about her receiving late-night messages from an older man. The young girl revealed the nature of the messages and her friend told the girl’s mother.
The girl told Gardaí she had asked the man to stop after he asked her to kiss his penis and he kissed her vagina.
Reading a victim impact statement in court, the girl said her life had been destroyed by the abuse and she continues to suffer from flashbacks, severe depression, anxiety, and complex post traumatic stress disorder.
“He will never truly understand what he did to me. He stole my childhood and he stole my adulthood because I will never cleanse the memories from my mind,” she said.
“I can still hear his voice whisper, ‘Don’t tell, don’t tell, it’s our little secret’.”
The man’s barrister, senior counsel Mark Nicholas, said the defendant, now in his 50s, was regarded as being below average risk of reoffending, according to a psychological report.
Mr Nicholas read out a letter of apology from the man expressing his remorse and shame. A member of the girl’s family, who was sitting in the court with her, replied: “We don’t accept your apology.”
Mr O’Sullivan told Judge Daly at this week’s sentencing that the young woman did not want to waive her anonymity and did not want the guilty man identified, in case it would lead to her being exposed to publicity.
In sentencing, Judge Daly referred to existing case law and to factors in the case, including the “grooming of a child for his own sexual gratification”, and the fact that the man had initially evaded justice.
He took into account the vulnerability of the child, who had a serious medical condition, but also the man’s previous good character.
Judge Daly commended the young woman who, he said, had “very eloquently and courageously” read her victim impact statement to the court.
He sentenced the defendant to seven years for the sexual assaults, with one year suspended for seven years. He was sentenced to three and a half years years two counts of sexual exploitation and one and a half years years for possession of child pornography – all of the which are to run concurrently.
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