Man facing trial on 232 charges alleging sexual abuse of two girls in North Cork pleads guilty to sample counts

A 36-year-old man facing trial on a total of 232 charges alleging the sexual abuse of two young girls in North Cork between 2014 and 2018 pleaded guilty today to sample counts on the indictment.

A jury was to have been sworn in for the trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. However, the accused man pleaded guilty to 18 sample counts.

Defence senior counsel Ray Boland said that while the plea of guilty was not formally entered until the accused man was arraigned today as a trial was scheduled to start, there had been earlier indications from the defence that pleas of guilty would be entered. 

This was not done sooner because of particular complexities in the case, Mr Boland said.

The defence counsel then applied for free legal aid to be extended so that a GP’s report and a psychological report could be prepared on the defendant.

Brendan Kelly, prosecution barrister, said there was no state objection to the accused being remanded on bail until October 30 for sentencing.

Mr Boland said the defence accepted that while the plea of guilty was only entered to sample charges on the 232-count indictment, the full facts of the case would be given by the investigating garda in October.

So far, no evidence has been given in court about the circumstances that gave rise to the charges.

Several counts refer to sexual assault by getting the child to masturbate him. 

Other counts refer to touching the child in areas including around the vagina while other counts include exploiting both injured parties by exposing them to pornographic videos.

Judge Dermot Sheehan said the prohibition on identification of the injured parties extended to not identifying the defendant or the geographical area where the sexual abuse occurred, other than by reference to North Cork. 

The girls were aged between 6 and 10, and between 8 and 12 at the relevant times. The defendant was aged from 25 to 29.