Jail for man (26) who tried tosexuallyexploitschoolgirl
JUDGE IMPOSES 18-MONTH SENTENCE, WITH FINAL SIX MONTHS SUSPENDED, ON MAN
A 26-YEAR- OLD man living in North Cork has been jailed for six months after he pleaded guilty to meeting a 16-year-old girl for sexual exploitation after making contact with her on a dating website.
Mohamad Ayman Naji of Castlegar, Chapel Lane, Mallow, pleaded guilty to committing the single offence at his apartment in Mallow on August 17/18, 2018, when he was arraigned at Cork Circuit Criminal Court last week.
He pleaded guilty to a charge that he intentionally met the girl, having communicated with her on at least one previous occasion and did so for the purpose of doing anything that would constitute sexual exploitation of a child.
Garda Patrick Sexton of Mallow Garda Station told the court that a 16-year-old girl had come into Mallow Garda Station on August 20, 2018, accompanied by her mother and reported that she had met Naji on the website, Hotornot.
He said Naji and the girl had exchanged phone numbers after initial contact on the website and there followed hundreds of texts in the next couple of weeks that were of both a sexual nature and a general conversational nature.
“The injured party outlined that she was 16 and was in school and this was acknowledged by the defendant – they arranged to meet up and he advised her to delete all her messages just in case her mother saw her phone.”
Naji, who was 24 at the time, was aware of the girl’s age as he made reference to the fact she was younger than his 17-year-old sister and was underage as he also told her to delete all messages in case the police got involved.
They arranged to meet up and the girl spent the night of August 17/August 18, 2018, at his apartment, said Garda Sexton, adding that gardaí launched an investigation as soon as the matter was reported to them by the girl’s mother.
He said that they arrested Naji on June 4, 2019, and brought him to Mallow Garda Station where, on legal advice from his solicitor, he declined to answer questions about his relationship with the injured party.
However, apart from that, he did co-operate with gardaí in that he provided them with the pin code for his phone and they were able to recover deleted messages which were helpful to the investigation, he said.
Cross-examined by defence barrister, Donal O’Sullivan BL, Garda Sexton confirmed that Naji had not engaged in any penetrative sexual act or oral sexual act with the girl when she stayed over at his apartment.
He also confirmed that Naji, who had arrived in Ireland from Syria in 2015, got a degree here and works as an engineer, had no previous convictions in Ireland and had not come to any adverse garda attention since this incident.
Mr O’Sullivan submitted a report from psychotherapist, Dr Nicholas Banks who had met and interviewed Naji and had concluded that he presented no risk of re-offending and committing similar offences.
Mr O’Sullivan submitted that his client had indicated at an early stage that he would be pleading guilty to the offence and that was of significance in that it ensured the injured party did not have to go through the trauma of a trial.
“He is also very remorseful – he has lived here long enough to know better and he has learned his lesson,” said Mr O’Sullivan, stressing that he had no previous convictions and not come to adverse garda attention since.
Naji was not at any risk of re-offending but would end up on the Sex Offenders Register irrespective of whatever sentence the court would impose, said Mr O’Sullivan as he appealed to the court to impose a fully suspended sentence.
Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said it was entirely correct for Mr O’Sullivan as a defence barrister to make a submission to have an entirely suspended sentence imposed on his client.
And he said he fully accepted that Naji had entered an early plea of guilty and had done well since coming to Ireland prior to this incident and since the incident in that he had not come to adverse garda attention.
“What I am about worried about though is this - he continued with the messages and with the behaviour, knowing the girl was 16 and knowing the implications of that and that is a serious aggravating factor,” he said.
“I think a custodial sentence is merited. I accept he did extremely well, learned English, got a job and is otherwise well-adjusted in this society. That is to be admired but he did transgress in a fairly significant way on this occasion.”
Judge O Donnabháin said he accepted that Naji had been full and forthright in his exchanges with Dr Banks about the texting and he accepted that he was at low risk of re-offending or re-engaging in such behaviour.
He initially sentenced Naji to 18 months in jail with nine months suspended but upon further pleading from Mr O’Sullivan, he suspended the final 12 months leaving Naji to serve a six month term in jail.