Dublin man jailed for sexual assault and child pornography offences

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

A Dublin man was sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to six years and nine months in prison, with the final nine months suspended on strict conditions. These included two years of Probation Service supervision after his release. The proceedings were reported on 28 July 2020.

He pleaded guilty to sexual assault and to distributing and producing child pornography. The sexual assault took place at his then address on an unknown date between 1 September and 31 December 2014. The man, who had no previous convictions, cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, his step-daughter.

The court heard that he used a camera hidden inside a clock to film his step-daughter in the shower and sent videos to another man. A garda said a search warrant was executed at an address in Donegal in 2016, where a man said the accused had sent him videos of her. Gardaí then searched the accused’s house and seized two devices containing 96 videos and 82 images of child pornography.

The garda agreed with defence counsel that no images of the victim were found on the man’s devices and that he had admitted secretly filming her and sending the recordings to the man in Donegal. The defence said he had genuine shame for what he had done.

Judge Elma Sheahan said the filming was a continuation of the sexual abuse and that the lengths he went to made him highly culpable.

This case may have concluded differently. The outcome has not yet been confirmed by a public source we could find.