Jailed sex offender admits exposing himself to young girl

Tom Tuite

An "evil" sex offender jailed for abusing his nephew has indicated a guilty plea to indecently exposing himself to a young girl in the Midlands.

The man, in his 40s, received a 10-year sentence in January for sexual assault of a boy and for secretly filming a friend's daughter using the toilet on dates in 2021.

He appeared at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday having been sent forward from the District Court on a signed plea to exposing his genitals to the child during a three-week period in 2021.

Judge Cephas Power adjourned the case until October for him to affirm his guilty plea. Evidence on this incident has yet to be heard.

"Predatory, systemic, calculated and plain evil" were some of the words Judge Keenan Johnson used to describe the other crimes when he sentenced the man in January.

He is not being identified to protect the victims' right to anonymity.

As a "trusted" uncle, he was babysitting when he abused his sister's son, who detailed what happened in a specialist interview.

He fell asleep on a couch but woke to find the accused rubbing his penis with the palm of his hand under his clothes.

He revealed that he awoke because of the glow of his uncle "shining his phone in his face" and saw "a random guy". It was an adult, in the web chat on the screen, "touching himself as well".

The terrified boy ran to his room and hurriedly sent a Snapchat message to his mother.

He told gardaí, "I felt like puking, really scared".

His mother returned and asked what had happened, and he initially convinced her everything was okay.

However, her concerns resurfaced when she later learned that her brother had befriended another young boy and allowed him to take showers in his workplace.

Gardaí were alerted, searched a property he used and found his phone also had two covert video recordings of the girl aged 10 - 12 using the toilet and showing her vagina.

He had prior convictions for public order, criminal damage, driving offences, and failing to appear in court.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.