Man jailed for repeatedly defiling girl and blackmailing her with recording

A young man who as a teenager repeatedly defiled a girl and used a recording of one of the offences to blackmail her has been jailed for four years and three months.

The Central Criminal Court heard he threatened to circulate the video unless the girl met him again. The video was later disseminated, causing her great distress.

Both parties were aged about 13 when the offending started.

The defendant, now aged 21, pleaded guilty to three counts of defilement of a child under the age of 15 on dates between 2018 and 2020. This carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

He pleaded guilty to a further count of defilement of a child under the age of 17 on a date in 2021. This carries a maximum sentence of seven years’ imprisonment.

In her victim-impact statement, the young woman said she did not think the effects of what the accused had done would ever go away. She said she had not consented to any of it.

“It felt like the end of my life,” she said.

Passing sentence on Monday, Judge Kerida Naidoo said the aggravating factors included the seriousness of the offending and the impact on the injured party. He described the offences as a protracted campaign of blackmail and coercion.

Naidoo said he took into account that the defendant was a child at the time of the offending.

The judge said he had seen two psychologists reports and observed that the accused had a diagnosis of ADHD, which may have impacted his cognitive processing. He said this was not a mental illness but a factor impacting culpability.

He set a headline sentence of six years and nine months’ imprisonment.

The judge took the accused’s guilty plea and expressions of remorse, including a letter of apology, into account.

He noted a probation report outlined the man expressed remorse and disgust, but also observed the defendant claimed to have poor recollection, gave contradictory accounts and had limited insight into the affect on the young woman. He said this undermined the remorse claim to some degree.

Naidoo imposed a sentence of four years and nine months, suspending the final six months for one year on strict conditions.

An investigating garda told prosecuting counsel Anne Marie Lawlor that the first offences involved sexual acts against the young girl by the accused on an evening in 2018.

The girl said they were kissing and she pushed back but he would not listen. She did not wish to have intercourse but was unable to move as he was stronger. She said she asked the boy to stop and cried throughout.

The garda said the third offence happened while the girl was intoxicated. The boy used his phone to record the act and the girl’s face.

The court heard he used this recording to blackmail her into meeting again and threatened to disseminate it if she did not comply.

She agreed to meet him again after threats were made to her about family members. She was 15 at this time. She said she was terrified, did not want to have sex and said it was aggressive and painful.

The accused then sent her aggressive messages after he believed she had reported him to gardaí. He was arrested and interviewed in 2023, telling gardaí they had been going out together and the acts had been consensual.

Defence counsel told the court the accused was very sorry for the offences. She said this matter had been “hanging over him”, that he suffered with low mood and was on medication. She asked the court to take into account his age at the time and the absence of an age disparity between the parties.