Child rapist groomed girl in UK after Garda interview

A child rapist was able to travel to the UK and commit further offences after being interviewed by gardaí here who had seen a video of him raping an 11-year-old girl.

Michael Smith, aged 53, from Tipperary, groomed, raped, and sexually assaulted the girl, who he considered to be his daughter, for 10 years before going to the UK where he was jailed for grooming and sexually abusing a teenage girl he met through a social media site.

The Central Criminal Court heard that the Irish victim went to gardaí about the abuse in 2004 when she was 17. She said she had been continuously sexually abused by him from the age of eight.

A follow-up search uncovered a recording of him raping the child when she was 11.

Smith was interviewed voluntarily and went to England shortly afterwards.

Smith, previously of Maplewood Way, Tallaght, pleaded guilty to nine counts of rape, two counts of oral rape, one count of possession of child pornography, and assault causing harm of Michelle Smith at addresses in Rathmines, Tallaght, and Cabra between 1994 and 2004.

The Irish victim, who has waived her right to anonymity, believed that Smith was her father at the time of the abuse.

The victim told gardaí she thought the sex was normal and that Smith had on several occasions recorded the abuse on a camcorder.

Sergeant Paul Maher said Smith, who has no previous Irish convictions, was jailed in England after the

authorities stopped him in 2008 with a 15-year-old girl, whom he had groomed online.

He was extradited back to Ireland after his release from a UK prison in October 2014.

Sgt Maher agreed with Pauline Walley, defending, that her client’s guilty pleas had spared the victim the trauma of a trial. He further accepted Smith had completed two sexual offences courses while in jail.

Mr Justice Moran remanded Smith in custody until sentence finalisation on Friday.