Dublin man jailed for defilement of underage cousin

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

A Dublin man was jailed for three and a half years for defilement of his underage cousin at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The proceedings were reported on 14 November 2018.

A jury convicted him in October 2018 of four charges of defilement and one charge of sexual exploitation of a child. The offences occurred between September 2012 and February 2014.

The girl was 15 when her then 23-year-old cousin first had sex with her.

Judge Elma Sheahan imposed a concurrent one-year sentence for child sexual exploitation. She considered suspending part of the sentence but said she could not do so because the man had expressed no remorse.

The judge accepted that he had previously been of unblemished character and acknowledged that he had never used force on his cousin. She noted their age disparity and said he had breached and abused the trust placed in him.