{"id":261442,"date":"2026-01-24T10:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T10:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/261442\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T10:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T10:38:12","slug":"predator-who-sexually-assaulted-nephew-sentenced-to-10-years-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/261442\/","title":{"rendered":"Predator who sexually assaulted nephew sentenced to 10 years \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A \u201ctrusted\u201d uncle who livestreamed a web chat to a random man online as he sexually assaulted his sleeping 12-year-old nephew has been jailed for 10 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The midlands man, in his 40s, also secretly filmed a friend\u2019s daughter using the toilet, and pleaded guilty to sexual assault, as well as possession and production of child pornography on dates in 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He is not being identified to protect the victims\u2019 right to anonymity. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cPredatory, systemic, calculated and plain evil,\u201d were some of the words Judge Keenan Johnson used to describe the crimes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The man who was babysitting when he abused his sister\u2019s son, sat with his arms folded for most of his sentence hearing at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court on Friday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In sentencing, the judge emphasised the breach of trust, the lack of remorse and the hurt caused to the injured parties and to the defendant\u2019s wider family. He was found to be at a high risk of reoffending.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Defence counsel Andrew Callan asked the judge to note her client\u2019s own abuse experience at a young age may have skewed his view of the world and approach to children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">At an earlier hearing of the evidence last July, Det Garda David Mead outlined how the boy detailed what happened in a specialist interview. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He fell asleep on a couch but woke to find the accused rubbing his penis with the palm of his hand under his clothes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"> He said he woke because of the glow of his uncle \u201cshining his phone in his face\u201d and saw \u201ca random guy\u201d. It was an adult, in the web chat on the screen, \u201ctouching himself as well\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The boy ran to his room and hurriedly sent a Snapchat message to his mother.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He told garda\u00ed, \u201cI felt like puking, really scared\u201d. His mother returned and asked what had happened and he initially convinced her everything was okay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">However, her concerns resurfaced when she later learned her brother had befriended another young boy and allowed him to take showers in his workplace. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The victim\u2019s parents broached the subject again, and this time their son disclosed the abuse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a victim-statement last July, the boy\u2019s mother turned to face her brother, saying her son had \u201ctrusted and loved you so much, and you took advantage of him\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She said the boy had been devastated and confused. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI have lost my brother, and best friend that I truly loved. I am so angry,\u201d adding, \u201cyou have ripped our family apart\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The judge was told garda\u00ed searched a property the man used and found his phone also had two covert video recordings of a girl aged 10-12 using the toilet and showing her vagina. His voice could be heard in the background of the videos, which lasted about 46 seconds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The girl\u2019s mother was shocked when garda\u00ed contacted her. She had known him through work, found him immature, and noticed he had been texting and inviting her son over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In court, she told him he had stolen her daughter\u2019s innocence and the child no longer feels safe, suffers distress and anxiety. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201ctrusted\u201d uncle who livestreamed a web chat to a random man online as he sexually assaulted his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[36527,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-261442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-courts-service","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}