Army corporal jailed for having underage sex

A 52-year-old Irish Army corporal who had sex with a 16-year-old school girl has been jailed for 18 months by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for unlawful carnal knowledge and possession of sexually explicit images of the girl.

Paul Collins, of Mourne Road, Drimnagh, pleaded guilty to unlawful carnal knowledge of a female under 17 at Upper Cross Hotel, Rathmines on August 27, 2005 and possession of child pornography on dates between April and December 2005.

Judge Katherine Delahunt said the girl and Collins first made contact as she had dialled a wrong number and got his voice mail and that this was a very unusual feature of the case.

Judge Delahunt said there was not a pattern of deviant behaviour on Collins’ part and he had not "groomed" the girl. She said the offence was in the "middle ranges of the scale" and placed him on the register of sex offenders. He had €10,000 available as a token of remorse which will be paid to the victim.

Garda Leanne Murphy earlier told Garnet Orange BL, prosecuting, that in 2002 the girl dialled the wrong number while trying to ring her mother’s mobile. She inadvertently made contact with Collins and messages and texts were exchanged "intermittently" between them and then stopped.

The communication recommenced in 2005 when the girl was 16 and Collins was 50 years old. She agreed to meet him in Dublin and sent sexually explicit photographs of herself to his mobile. Gda Murphy agreed with Remy Farrell BL, defending, that the sending of pictures "arose in a consensual context".

The girl travelled from her home in the midlands to meet Collins in July 2005 but nothing untoward happened. In August 2005 he met the girl at Heuston Station and took her to a hotel in Rathmines.

They had a drink and then went to a bedroom where they had consensual sexual intercourse.

After the incident the girl met friends on the train home who became aware of what had happened and told a teacher. The teacher spoke to the girl and then contacted gardaí.

Gda Murphy said Collins was an army corporal stationed at Rathmines Barracks. He was separated but living with his ex partner and had no children. He made a voluntary statement in which he accepted that he had sex with the girl and that she was 16 at the time.

Gad Murphy agreed with Mr Farrell that when Collins received pictures of the girl he asked her if she was 19 and she said yes. At their first meeting he discovered she was 16, became annoyed and broke off contact with her.

She continued to send him messages and after a period he recommenced contact with her. They agreed to meet a second time and Gda Murphy agreed with Mr Farrell that it was clear to both parties that they would have sex.

Gda Murphy agreed that the girl had originally initiated contact with Collins and continued to send him messages after he told her to stop.

Gda Murphy further agreed with Mr Farrell that the girl had been "boastful" about the incident when she met friends on the train and that the sex was not only consensual but that the girl had "actively pursued" Collins.

Mr Farrell said his client had regretted his actions every day since the incident and suggested that had it not been for the unlikely manner in which the pair had made contact that Collins would not have "engaged in this conduct".

Mr Farrell said that a psychologist's report on the girl indicated that she suffered from personal difficulties before the incident and was a vulnerable person who had been taken advantage of.

Judge Delahunt said the victim was a very troubled young girl.