Snapchat predator from Cork given additional sentence to reflect gravity of crimes

A predatory sex offender who used Snapchat to “groom and manipulate” two girls when they were aged ten and 14, whom he later raped, will now serve an additional four-and-a-half years in prison after the State successfully objected to the undue leniency of his original nine-year sentence.

After David O'Sullivan was arrested last March, gardaí found 1,629 files of downloaded child sexual abuse material on a mobile phone belonging to him. 

This included 915 videos and images of sexual activity involving children and 714 images of sexually explicit exposure.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had sought a review of O’Sullivan’s original term of imprisonment, arguing that his offending was at “such an extreme end” of this type of case that the ultimate sentence imposed had been “incapable of reflecting the gravity” of the crimes.

The Court of Appeal has upheld the State’s appeal, finding that the sentence was unduly lenient.

Resentencing O’Sullivan to thirteen-and-a half-years in prison, Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy said this was offending of “a very grave nature” by a young man who had “groomed and manipulated these extremely young girls, instilled fear, made threats and sexually assaulted both of them”.

O’Sullivan, 23, previously of Ballick Road, Midleton, Co Cork and St Vincent's Avenue, Woodquay, Galway, groomed the girls for months before meeting them and raping them.

The girls, who are from different parts of the country and are unknown to each other, were aged 14 and ten when he raped them.

O’Sullivan was sentenced to 11-and-a half-years for the rapes and for possession of child abuse material in November 2025 by Ms Justice Melanie Greally at the Central Criminal Court.

She suspended the final two and a half years on condition that O’Sullivan keep the peace, engage with sexual offence treatment and refrain from contacting either of the victims for 50 years.

At the appeal hearing last week, senior counsel John Berry, for the DPP, said the sentence imposed on O’Sullivan for rape, which involved the manipulation through digital media of “young, vulnerable victims”, had to be met by a jail term that was greater than the one handed down.

Counsel said after an initial encounter with the first victim, O’Sullivan was stopped in the curtilage of the girl’s home and received an adult caution for trespassing. 

He said O’Sullivan subsequently provided the young girl with a phone and a credit card and used the Snapchat app to engage with her.

The girl had another phone which her parents monitored, counsel said, but they were unaware of this device.

O’Sullivan later arranged to meet the girl in a shopping centre where he gave her alcohol and orally raped her before pulling her clothes down and raping her again. The victim told her mother what had happened and gardaí were contacted.

Mr Berry said gardaí then spoke to O’Sullivan and at this point the defendant “had to have known he was under investigation for a very serious offence”. 

Nevertheless, O’Sullivan moved to another town in the West of Ireland and “then he started again”.

In August 2024, O'Sullivan contacted a 10-year-old girl on Snapchat, pretending he was 13.

When O’Sullivan’s phone was examined, he was found to have used multiple Snapchat identities and had been blocked from the platform as a result. He evaded this by using the internet browser on his phone rather than the dedicated Snapchat App.

Mr Berry said the use of social media was “crucial” in this case and referenced the “degrading” and “debasing” nature of the communication with the second, younger victim.

The meetings with this victim happened over a consistent period of time, the barrister said, and it was only after the girl took part in a school course about child safety online that she made a disclosure to a teacher which led to Mr O’Sullivan’s apprehension and the seizure of his phone.

Mr Berry submitted O’Sullivan engaged in “sophisticated and surreptitious predatory behaviour” in which he “relentlessly pursued” two young girls whom he ultimately raped.

Delivering judgment today, Ms Justice Kennedy said the sequence of events was important considering the gravity of the offending. She noted that despite being fully aware of his wrongdoing in relation to the first victim, O’Sullivan began grooming and abusing his second victim.

She said this conduct demonstrated a “calculating mind”, and his abuse of the second victim was done with a “measured and intentional” purpose.

Ms Justice Kennedy said this was a case where consecutive sentences were “entirely appropriate” to “properly reflect the gravity of the offending”.

She imposed a sentence of six-and-a half years in respect of the charges relating to the first victim, and a consecutive sentence of nine years for the charges concerning the second, younger complainant. 

A concurrent sentence of six-and-a-half years was also imposed for possession of child abuse material, resulting in a total sentence of fifteen-and-a-half years.

Ms Justice Kennedy said that, having considered the issue of totality, the court would reduce the overall sentence by two years to thirteen-and-a-half years to ensure it was proportionate. 

Citing concerns outlined in a probation report and the need protect the public from the serious harm O’Sullivan could inflict, while also assisting in his rehabilitation, she imposed a post-release supervision order of 15 years. O’Sullivan will remain on the sex offenders register for life.

Last September, O'Sullivan pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape and oral rape of the first victim in February 2023. 

He also pleaded guilty to communication with a child for the purpose of sexual exploitation between June 2022 and February 2023.

He further pleaded guilty to four counts of rape and one of oral rape of the second child on dates between August and November 2024.

He also admitted communicating with the second child between August 2024 and March 2025 for the purpose of sexually exploiting her. 

He pleaded guilty to production of child abuse material in relation to asking the victim to send him a video of herself.

The victim who was 14 when O’Sullivan raped her told her abuser at his sentencing hearing: “I no longer want to be a victim, I want to be a survivor. You did not break my spirit. Your power is now gone”.

The court heard that the younger victim believed she was in a relationship with O'Sullivan. In relation to the sexual activity, she told gardaí: “He didn't give up, so I gave in”.

She said O'Sullivan told her he would kill her father if she told anyone about him and later said that somebody had raped his sister and that he had killed this person and buried him.