Dublin man jailed for showing pornography to 10-year-old cousin

By Eimear Dodd and Sonya McLean

A man who got his 10-year-old second cousin to watch pornography with him after engaging in inappropriate conversations with the child during online gaming has been jailed for two years.

The 30-year-old Dublin man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to inducing or inciting a child to touch another person and causing a child to look at an image of a person engaging sexual activity on dates in May 2018.

A local detective told Fiona McGowan BL prosecuting that the accused was 22 when he began engaging in inappropriate communications with the victim.

In January 2020 the child’s parents contacted gardaí and the child was interviewed by specialist officers.

He told the gardaí that he used to play games online with the accused. His friends would be gaming with them but the accused used to wait until the other children had left the game before he would talk inappropriately to the boy.

The victim said his cousin would talk to him about sex and sexual positions.

He recalled an incident when he was over at his cousin’s house and they were upstairs playing a game when the accused showed him pornographic material. He described being shown two separate pornographic videos.

He said he felt uncomfortable at the time and the accused suggested to the child that he should masturbate. The child said he didn’t want to do this. He began to spend less time with his cousin after this incident.

The child also told the gardaí about a message he received from the accused on Instagram, referencing an erection and calling a girl a slut.

The man was contacted by the child’s mother and asked him to stop communicating with her son. The man later moved out of Ireland.

He was later arrested and accepted that he spent time alone with the boy. He accepted he had spoken to him of sexual matters but suggested that the child had started those conversations. This claim was not accepted by the detective.

The man accepted that he had sent the message but denied that he had shown him pornography.

The man is currently serving a sentence for a similar offence and possession of child abuse material which was imposed in a different jurisdiction.

Victim impact statements were handed into the court but not read out.

Judge Martin Nolan said the accused has “certain problems” and is “still suffering to some degree”.

He said he is absolutely confident that the man “knew what he was doing” and said the offences represented “a significant breach of trust” that had a considerable impact on the family dynamic.

Judge Nolan said he wanted to try and help the accused but also protect the community. He suspended the final year of a three-year jail term on strict conditions including that the man engage with the Probation Service for a year upon his release from custody.

The investigating garda agreed with Mark Lynam SC, defending, that his client seemed quite socially isolated at the time.

It was further accepted that the man acknowledged a text from his victim’s mother after his offending came to light, replying “message received, have a good life”.

Letters from the man and his parents, along with a report by The Probation Services from the jurisdiction the man had served a prison term in were handed to the court.

Mr Lynam told the court his client is ashamed and remorseful and aware that his actions led to a breakdown in family relations, which he deeply regrets. His parents were in court to support him.

Counsel said the man asks the court in his letter to impose counselling or offence-focused work, which he was unable to undertake in the foreign prison due to his short prison sentence.

Mr Lynam noted the report from the other jurisdiction’s probation services confirms this and assesses his client at high risk of re-offending against children, but this risk could be reduced if he undertakes offence-focused work. The report also states that his client has complied with all conditions since his release from custody, counsel said.

He acknowledged it is “very concerning” that the man has similar convictions, adding that his client is anxious to engage with services and counselling.

Counsel said his client was relatively young when this offending occurred and wants to turn his life around. He asked the court to consider imposing probation supervision as part of any sentence.