Community volunteer jailed for abusing three boys
A man who received an award for volunteering in his community has been given a four-year sentence for sexually abusing three young boys.
The 29-year-old Dublin man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victims, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three boys at locations in Dublin and Co Meath on dates unknown between May 5 and December 31, 2007.
The court heard how the man used his position as a local volunteer to become close to children in the area in which he lived.
Judge Patrick McCartan imposed a four-year sentence and suspended the final two years.
Judge McCartan said that he had regard to the very young age of the first victim and the fact that the man had offered treats to bribe his victims. He said the man had abused his position of trust within the community.
Judge McCartan said that the man “had a future” as he had cooperated fully with gardaí at all times and had stopped the abuse “of his own motion”.
Detective garda Gareth Kane told Ms Caroline Cummings BL, prosecuting, that the man abused his first victim after he befriended the victim’s mother.
Det garda Kane said the man would bring the youngster to a local park with the promise of having a ride on the man’s motorbike.
The man told his victim, who was aged just nine at the time of the offence, to touch him intimately as the two would drive to the park in the man’s van.
The victim told gardaií that the man would bribe him into further abuse and that he was abused approximately every second week either in the man’s van or at the victim’s home.
Det garda Kane said that the abuser’s actions came to light after his victim inadvertently told his mother by sleepwalking into the kitchen and yelling: “Don’t let him come near me!”.
Det garda Kane agreed with Mr Paul McDermott SC, defending, that the man cooperated fully with gardaí and expressed full remorse during his arrest.
When asked by gardaí if he thought he had a problem, the man replied simply: “Yes.”
Garda Shane O’Connor told Ms Cummings that the man befriended a number of teenagers in the area after he volunteered to drive the bus for a local sports team.
Garda O’Connor said that the man told some of the boys on the sports team that he could give them casual labour as an assistant to him in his business.
The man told his second victim that he could have a job helping him on a job in a house in Dublin city centre.
After working for the man for almost two hours, the victim was pushed on to a bed as he was carrying wood into the main bedroom from downstairs.
The victim told gardaí that the man grabbed him, saying that the woman who owned the house would not hear them.
When the victim rebuffed the man, the man turned back to his work and acted as if nothing had happened. He later his brought his victim for lunch at a nearby diner.
When the pair returned to the house the man again pushed his victim on to the bed, pushed his arms up over his head and pinned him down using his knees.
He then kissed him. The victim managed to escape the man’s grasp by kneeing him in the groin.
The victim told gardaí that he accepted a lift home with the man because he did not know where he was. The man paid the victim €45 and subsequently sent him text messages saying he was sorry for what had happened.
The victim told gardaí that he was horrified about what had occurred and that he changed his phone number to avoid any further contact from the man.
Garda O’Connor said that the man’s third victim also gained casual employment with the man after becoming familiar with him as the driver of the sports team’s bus.
As with the second victim, the man brought the teenager to a house where he was working. As the two were fitting a door in the house, the man turned and squeezed the teenager in an intimate way.
When the teenager jumped back in fright, the man asked what was wrong with him. He later gave his victim a lift home, remarking: “See you later, honey” as his victim got out of the van.
Mr McDermott told the court that the man was the recipient of an award for volunteering and a second award for his work in the local community.
Mr Dermott said that a psychologist’s report demonstrated that his client was an emotionally vulnerable man who had suffered sexual abuse in the past and had elevated levels of psychological distress.
He said that the report indicated that the man posed a moderate to low risk of reoffending.
