A LIMERICK man who was in a leadership role in a national voluntary body in the course of its operations in the Mid-West region has been sentenced to six years in jail, with the final six months suspended, for grooming, sexually assaulting and exploiting a then teenage girl. Before Limerick Circuit Court, the man who was also working as a postman at the time of the offences, pleaded guilty to seven counts including defilement of a child, sexual exploitation and sexual assault, as sample counts representing 21 charges. In sentencing, Judge Dermot Sheehan said there was a “significant age difference” and a “breach of trust” and he put the man on the sex offenders register for life.
All of the incidents occurred on dates in 2007 and 2008 and the abuse happened between 50 and 100 times in that period. At the time, the man who is now 44-years-old would have been 27 or 28, while the woman, whose identity has been protected by anonymity, was then only 14 or 15. The incidents happened at the house the man shared with his wife at that time, at the girl’s family home while her parents were out and in the man’s car.
He sometimes collected her from school. In sentencing, Judge Dermot Sheehan remarked that the accused “did not seem concerned about being caught.” He added that the abuse led to the victim now in her thirties missing her “chance to have normal teenage years.
” The judge acknowledged that the man used his lawful position as a postman as a cover, planned the.