Member of the Jehovah's Witness church  admits sexually exploiting girl, 13

During some text exchanges the pair referred to each other as “darling” and spoke about being in love, being boyfriend and girlfriend and about getting engaged.

A member of the Jehovah's Witness church here has admitted the sexual exploitation of a 13 year old girl.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, was aged 29 when he met the girl through their mutual association with a local Jehovah's Witness congregation.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that over a period of time in 2016 he and the girl exchanged messages on Viber, including sexually explicit images of the child.

The offending came to light when the girl's older sister spotted the messages and semi-naked images on a shared computer device and alerted their mother.

The court heard that the man and the girl began talking initially about organising team sports' activities in connection with the church. The man told gardaí that the girl told him she was feeling bad and was thinking of harming herself.

He told gardaí he was concerned and wanted to “calm her down”. 

Naked images

He later sent her topless images of himself and a naked photo of himself. In turn she sent him images of her topless and of her bum.

During some text exchanges the pair referred to each other as “darling” and spoke about being in love, being boyfriend and girlfriend and about getting engaged, Garda Padraic Rowan told the court.

In one exchange the man asked her if she would perform oral sex on him if he asked and she said she would. He told her he meant this for after “the wedding”.

Michael Bowman SC, defending, told the court that his client was “sexually naive in the extreme” and that this partly resulted from his involvement with an “extremely conservation religion in terms of sexual mores”.

He said that anything other than kissing or hugging in advance of getting married was not permitted and could lead to ex-communication. He said that after his arrest and interview his client went to “church elders” and self reported his actions and was ex-communicated for a period.

Garda Rowan agreed with Mr Bowman submission that this was an isolated incident and there were no ongoing inquiries in relation to his behaviour or his actions in the church.

Apology to victim

He said that the Probation Service have assessed him as being at a moderate risk of reoffending. He said his client wishes to apologise to the victim and her family.

Judge Karen O'Connor said this was a very serious matter and that the age disparity was very significant. She adjourned the case to February 18 next for sentencing.