Rapist stepfather made up blackmail plot to con terrified girl (16) into sex

A MAN tricked his teenage stepdaughter into having sex with him by using an elaborate online deception, a court has been told.

The Clare man (49) posed as a stranger who had information on the teenager.

He threatened her online and told her if she made a sexually explicit video of herself she would “never hear from me again”.

He then continued to harass her via email.

He demanded more videos and told her she had to have sex with her stepfather.

In his role as stepfather, the man then told the child he had received threatening emails from the same blackmailer demanding money.

He pretended he had tried to help his stepdaughter by sending a video of himself performing a sex act, but he was now being threatened himself.

He told the girl that to placate the unknown stranger, he had to have sex with her and make a video of it.

After he made videos of him molesting the girl, he then concocted more emails threatening to reveal the stepfather’s abuse unless they sent videos of him raping her.

The emails told the child that her stepfather’s “future is in your hands”.

Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, told the Central Criminal Court the teenager found the emails very distressing because she was afraid her stepfather would go to jail and she wanted to protect her mother.

The man subsequently raped the child using the pretext of the threats.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the victim’s anonymity, pleaded guilty to rape at a place in Co Clare between August and September 2010. He also admitted harassment between June 2009 and September 2010.

The girl was 16 when the harassment began and had turned 17 when her stepfather raped her.

Mr Justice Michael White described the deception as callous and ruthless.

He sentenced the man to 10 years’ imprisonment, suspending the last two years on condition that the man be assessed for a sex offender treatment programme. He said he was taking into consideration the man’s previous good character and his early guilty plea.

After his arrest, the man at first continued the pretence but then admitted he had deceived the girl and had sex with her against her will.

After the abuse came to light the girl, a foreign national, was taken into foster care. She had come here with her mother from another jurisdiction.

The victim found the threats distressing. She wanted to protect her mother