5-year sentence for offering boy (13) €50 for sex is cut to 12 months on appeal

A man from Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, has had his five-year prison sentence reduced to twelve months following a successful appeal against his original sentence. Thomas Folliard was convicted at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court of sexually exploiting a child in January 2016 after approaching a thirteen-year-old boy on a street in a Mayo town and offering him fifty euros for sex. The boy refused and reported the incident to his mother, who contacted gardaí. The Court of Appeal upheld his conviction, finding the trial satisfactory and the verdict sound. CCTV footage from a shopping centre and public building proved significant in establishing Folliard's presence and movements. However, the three-judge court deemed the offence fell at the lower end of the sentencing spectrum, noting the contact was brief, conducted in daylight on a busy street, and limited to verbal propositions. Folliard's previously unblemished character and community involvement influenced the sentencing decision.