A 13-YEAR-OLD BOY who sexually abused his six-year-old sister, took photographs of her and uploaded 64 images of this child abuse to a social media website will be sentenced later.

The court heard that the boy, who is from the south of the country, had unsupervised access to the internet from a very young age and later told gardaí that he first viewed pornography when he was six-years-old.

A local sergeant accepted that the family were very isolated in a rural area and that their home was made up of temporary structures and a caravan. Their father was significantly older than their mother and had died a number of years previously. The children were no longer attending school.

The sergeant told Eilis Brennan SC, prosecuting, that gardaí were alerted to the fact that inappropriate images had been uploaded to the social media platform Discord and the connected account was traced back to the children’s home.

The young girl was instantly identifiable to the gardaí as the subject of the images that had been uploaded. The images included images of the child’s vagina, the teenager’s penis and the young girl engaging in sexual activity with the boy.

The now 16-year-old, who is currently in a residential treatment centre for minors who sexually offend, came forward to the Central Criminal Court on signed pleas.

He pleaded guilty to six incidences of oral rape, nine charges of production of what is legally termed as child pornography and five charges of distribution of that material on dates between June 2022 and December 2022.

Ms Brennan read a victim impact statement that had been prepared by the now eight-year-old girl into the record.

The girl said she “feels much happier” now and that the foster family whom she has been living with since the gardaí called to her home in December 2022, “feels like home”.

“When I think about him I feel a bit scared,” the girl continued before she said she would really like her brother to write her a letter of apology because she said when people do bad things they “say sorry”.

Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring noted that these images of the girl are now out there. She said the child has no control over when and where the images of her may appear again on the internet.

The judge said as the girl gets older, she will realises that she is “out there for others like her brother to get sexual gratification from seeing her abused”. Ms Justice Ring said these are the long term impacts for her, which she said the child is hopefully unaware of at the moment as an eight-year-old girl.

The judge said she had “a huge set of reports” in relation to the accused but only a paragraph, the victim impact statement, in relation to “the other child who also has rights”.

She acknowledged that it is important to hear from the child herself – as she has had from the victim impact statement.

Ms Justice Ring said she wanted further information as to how the abuse has impacted the girl asking the investigating sergeant to speak to others – like her care worker – that may be able to provide more information to the court.

The sergeant said he spoke to the girl’s foster family and they do not wish to make a statement – adding that they were satisfied that the child was able to express the impact on herself in her victim impact statement.

Ms Justice Ring said there are other impacts, that the child as an eight-year-old may not be aware of and said she wanted further information. She adjourned the case to July 21 to allow for further reports.

“What you have done is horrendous,” Ms Justice Ring said addressing the 16-year-old. “If you were an adult you would be going out that door- that is the custody door. You need to be conscious of the jeopardy you are in the moment,” Ms Justice Ring said.

The court heard that the images were found on a tablet belonging to the then 13-year-old boy.

All children who were living with their mother at the time were taken into care that day with the boy being placed in a residential treatment centre.

He admitted to gardaí when they arrived at his home that he had been sexually abusing his sister and accepted that he had produced and distributed photographs of her.

The girl initially told specialist interviewers that her brother had punched, slapped and kicked her but the following year made a further statement after disclosing the abuse to her foster mother.

She said her brother would promises her treats and tell her to close her eyes before putting his penis in her mouth. She said he would threaten to swing her until she was dead if she told anyone.

The girl said she told her mother “when it first happened” but Ms Brennan said “no action was taken”.

The sergeant agreed with Michael Bowman SC, defending, that the reality of the situation was the family were “living off the grid in an unconventional family structure”.

He accepted that all children were not properly supervised.

The sergeant accepted that the teenager had unrestricted internet access from the age of five years old and agreed that he was manipulated by others online to post these photographs.

The teenager told gardaí he had two friends, whom were both friends online, one was from Slovakia, and one was from Norway.

He acknowledged that the teenager told gardaí he first accessed pornography online when he was six or seven years old.