MAN FORCED SEX ACT ON BOY, 13, AFTER ONLINE CHAT

A MAN forced a 13-year-old boy to perform a sex act on him after messaging him on a smartphone, a court heard.

The boy was using his mother’s smartphone at the time and downloaded a gay dating app. He uploaded a fake profile of himself, claiming to be 19 years old.

The man, who lives in Inishowen, Co. Donegal, contacted the boy a short time later and was told the boy’s mother would be out for two hours. The man came to the boy’s house, in another part of Inishowen, and the boy later told gardaí he was forced to perform a sex act on him.

The man, in his 30s, appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court yesterday where he pleaded guilty to the defilement of a child under 15 years on April 13, 2015.

The accused travelled to the victim’s home after the pair met on the Gaydar gay dating website. The court heard how the boy’s mother had left the boy at home with his siblings while she went out for a couple of hours with her partner. She gave the boy her mobile phone in case she needed to be contacted urgently.

Garda Malcolm Hooks told the court how the boy downloaded the gay contacts app Gaydar and put a fake profile claiming he was 19 years old on it.

In some of the other information contained in the profile, he admitted that he was just 13.

On another part of the profile, the boy wrote: ‘I’m not a porn star, I’m a 13 year old.’ Within a short time, a meeting between the man and the boy had been arranged at the boy’s home in another part of Inishowen.

The man showered and then drove to the boy’s home.In a later interview with gardaí, the man said that when the boy answered the door to him, he thought he was aged ‘16 or 17’.

Garda Hooks said that when the boy was interviewed by specialist interviewers, he claimed that the man forced him to commit a sex act on him. During the sexual encounter, the boy’s mother returned unexpectedly and witnessed the incident.

The accused man’s sister gave evidence that up until this incident, her family never knew he was homosexual. She added that her brother was deeply ashamed of what had happened and was willing to accept any punishment that came his way.

The man told a forensic psychologist: ‘I’m not that kind of person and I’m disgusted with myself. ‘If I can fix this in any way, I will.’ Judge John Aylmer adjourned the case to hear evidence from the boy.