A PAEDOPHILE, WHO sexually abused a girl during sleepovers with one of his own children, was jailed today for seven years with the final 12 months suspended.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the anonymity of the victim, sexually groomed the girl and got her to send him explicit videos of herself via her mobile phone.

The girl’s family rejected an apology from the man through his barrister at his sentencing hearing at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.

The court heard that the man, with an address in Co Clare, would whisper to the girl, “Don’t tell, don’t tell, it is our little secret”, after he abused her.

The abuse started in 2010, when the girl was aged ten, and the man was in his 40s. It continued until the girl was 15.

The victim made a formal complaint to Gardaí in 2016, when she was aged 16. 

The man left Ireland after he was arrested and questioned and released on bail pending further enquiries in 2017.

He was in custody since he was re-arrested abroad in 2024 on foot of an extradition warrant in respect of 31 child-sex related charges.

The man pleaded guilty to six sample charges, including three counts of sexual assaults on the girl, two counts of sexual exploitation of the girl, and one count of possession of child sex abuse images.

The court directed the man be included on a national sex offenders register for an indefinite period. The register of known paedophiles in Ireland is not available to the public.

Prosecuting barrister John O’Sullivan, instructed by State solicitor Padraig Mawe, assisted by Garda Mark McGauley, previously told the court that the man actively groomed the girl “for the purpose of his own sexual gratification”.

The man groomed the girl through chats via the Facebook and Viber social media platforms late at night, and when she attended his home on sleepovers with one of his children.

The man sent the victim ten images of his penis and asked her to send him images of her private parts. The girl sent the man 20 photos and one video.

In an effort to conceal his offending, the man instructed the girl to delete the imagery and video, which she did, and this material could not be recovered.

The man told the girl that when she was 18, they would go to Spain and “go further”.

“She didn’t want that,” O’Sullivan told the court.

Reading a victim impact statement in court, the girl said her life had been destroyed by the abuse.

The girl, now in her 20s, said she continues to suffer from flashbacks, severe depression, anxiety and a 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,” the victim said.

“The abuse continues to filter into my daily life in unexpected ways and trigger me. A song he used to play might play in a shop and it instantly transports me back, memories of what he did would surge into my mind. 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 is in his 50s, had no prior convictions, and was considered by a psychologist as being below average risk of reoffending.

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.”

O’Sullivan said the victim was entitled to her right to anonymity, and that the “issue of publicity” in respect of the defendant’s identify could be finalised at the conclusion of the criminal proceedings.

Sentencing Judge Colin Daly ordered that no parties could be identified.