Man jailed for sexual assault on Bebo boy
Colm Twomey, now 39, of Pouladuff Road, Togher, Cork, and Waltham Abbey, Ballincollig, Co Cork, was sentenced to three years by Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin with the second half of the sentence suspended.
Detective Garda Gary Duggan said the teenager was on Bebo when he met Twomey, who was 35 at the time, on a chatroom and that the defendant came to his house and sexually assaulted him.
Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said the crime was highly predatory.
Det Garda Duggan testified yesterday: “The injured party was home using the internet, a Bebo chatroom. Contact was made with (Twomey). There was conversation between the two parties online. The injured party gave him his phone number. He was then able to contact the injured party by phone.
“He later gave his address to Colm Twomey who drove to the injured party’s house. He left him into the house. He made the man a cup of coffee. Afterwards, Colm Twomey stood up and said, ‘where do you want to do this?’
“The injured party felt intimidated. Both of them went up the stairs. While going upstairs Mr Twomey was rubbing (the injured party’s) bottom. They went into a rear bedroom where Colm Twomey lowered his pants and underwear. The injured party did likewise. Both proceeded to masturbate each other.”
The detective said the injured party made a complaint to the gardaí about the incident on June 18, 2007. After initial denials, Twomey admitted the internet and phone contact and going to the house but said nothing happened there. He was convicted by a jury on the charge of sexually assaulting the teenager.
As well as the denial, defence barrister Brian Healy said the defendant believed before he got to the house that the injured party was 18.
The judge said that looking at the injured party in the witness box yesterday there is no way that he could have looked like anything other than a child three years ago when this happened. The injured party said he resorted to drink, drugs and self-harm after this happened and had a very difficult time.
Twomey’s name will be placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
A term of the suspension of the second half of the sentence is that he must comply with the directions of the probation service on counselling or rehabilitation over a period of three years after his release.
The judge said an aggravating factor was a previous conviction against Twomey for attempted sexual assault on a woman nine years ago. Working as a hotel porter, he used a master key to get into woman’s bedroom but fled when she woke.
He received a suspended sentence for that attempted assault.
