Man jailed for three years for sexual assault of boy

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

A 35-year-old man was jailed for three years for sexual assault at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 29 November 2019. He was convicted of sexually assaulting his friend’s seven-year-old son while staying at the family home. Judge Melanie Greally set a four-year headline sentence and reduced it to three years after considering his previous good character and work history. The man cannot be named to protect the victim’s anonymity and continues to deny the offence. He was found not guilty of one charge involving the boy’s younger brother, while the jury was directed to return a not-guilty verdict on another. The sentence was backdated to 18 October 2019, when he went into custody.

The court took account of his failure to admit guilt or express remorse. The judge also considered a letter in which he made disparaging comments about the victim’s mother and maintained that he was the victim in the case.