Woman pleads guilty in West Cork court to defilement of a 14-year-old

Bandon courthouse, Co Cork. Picture: Larry Cummins

A woman has pleaded guilty to defiling a child after she had been earlier charged with having sex with a 14-year-old more than a decade ago.

The woman, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the injured party, entered a signed plea at Bandon District Court in relation to four charges of defilement of a person aged under 17, between different dates in 2008 and 2009.

Sgt Paul Kelly told Judge James McNulty the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had directed the woman, now in her mid 40s, be sent forward to Cork Circuit Criminal Court on indictment or on a signed plea.

The charges relate to incidents on dates between November 2008 and April 2009, when the injured party was 14. The incidents took place in different locations across two counties.

She will appear before the circuit criminal court in Cork, on bail and on her own bond of €5,000, no cash required. Legal aid was also extended to the woman for the circuit court proceedings.

The matter had previously come before the court last month when Judge McNulty told the woman that she must not contact the alleged injured party or have any contact with witnesses in the case while released on bail.

At that hearing at Bandon District Court last month, Det Sgt Kevin Long of the Cork West divisional protective services unit in Dunmanway, gave evidence of the arrest, charge, and caution of the accused at Bandon Garda Station.

The court heard on that occasion the accused had made no reply to four charges after caution and she had been handed a copy of each charge, before her release on bail ahead of yesterday’s court hearing.