Man (48) befriended 10-year-old girl on Facebook, Wexford court told

A LOCAL man in his late forties befriended a 10-year-old girl on Facebook and exchanged over 1,000 messages with her, Wexford Circuit Criminal Court was told.

The accused, who by order of the court cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity, pleaded guilty to the possession and production of child pornography.

The court was told that the 48-year-old man was arrested and interviewed following complaint from the victim’s family after the messages were found on the child’s mobile phone.

The investigating Garda told the court that there were over one thousand Facebook messages exchanged between the defendant and his young victim. He said the victim had initially met the defendant at a family event after which he had sent her a friend request on Facebook.

Many messages were then exchanged between April 2012 and September 2013. The court was told that the Facebook chat was of a boyfriend/girlfriend nature.

Prosecuting Counsel Sinead Gleeson said that at all times the young victim make it clear she was 10 years old.

While there were no allegations of sexual intercourse, there were discussions about sex and messages of an explicit nature and references to what the man and the child might do together.

There were also many references to the defendant being naked, and suggestions of meeting up and not telling anyone.

In reply to Judge Cormac Quinn, Ms Gleeson said that while the content and messages would come under ‘child pornography’, the Prosecution was not claiming the defendant was in possession of photographs showing nudity.

She said a warrant was executed in relation to the matter on receipt of the complaint. A tablet and PC were examined but no naked images were found.

The defendant was arrested on February 3, 2017, and brought to the local Garda station where he accepted he was in contact with the victim. He was very co-operative and accepted he had been encouraging potential sexual activity between them but stated that he was not getting any sexual gratification from the contact.

He said he knew she was ten years of age at the time, and accepted that he was the instigator.

Defence Counsel, John Peart (instructed by Colette Culleton, solicitor), said the defendant made a full admission when interviewed.

He repeated that when the defendant’s computers were analysed, there was no downloaded pornographic material and no shared pornography.

When the man first made contact with the victim he said he was watching a film of ‘Naughty Nuns’ and that it had moved on from there, but there were no pornographic videos or photographs found on the computer. Garda Janet Walsh had carried out an examination of the computer hard drives and history and no illegal content was found.

Mr Peart said that the man had offered an apology to the girl and her mother but he did not know if that apology had been accepted.

He went on to highlight to the court a mistake in the prepared Probation and Welfare report. He said it was important he brought it to the court’s attention. Judge Quinn told Mr. Peart that in fairness to his client, he would order an updated report and ensure that the relevant, factually incorrect paragraph highlighted by Mr. Peart would be brought to the attention of the Probation and Welfare Officer.

Remanding the defendant on continuing bail, Judge Quinn adjourned the matter to May 21.