Andrew Carey
A 23-year-old county Limerick man has pleaded guilty to the sexual exploitation of a child after he contacted her through facebook.
The county Limerick man also pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of the young girl who is underage on May 12, 2011.
At Limerick Circuit Court, Judge Carroll Moran heard that the man contacted the girl through the social media website and invited her to meet him on dates between April 29 and May 12, 2011.
Prosecution for the State, John O’Sullivan told the court that it was a case of a “sensitive nature” as the accused lives in “close proximity to the injured party”.
After the guilty plea was entered, defence counsel Mark Nicholas said that the matter now became a case of sentencing and was seeking an adjournment in the mater as the defendant was undergoing a number of assessments in relation to rehabilitation.
“These would assist the court at the next sitting”, he said.
Mr Nicholas canvassed a date after Christmas due to the relevant assessors “being quite busy in the run up to Christmas”.
When the issue of identifying the accused man was addressed in court, Mr O’Sullivan said that the mother of the 16-year-old girl did not have a issue with the accused being named.
Judge Moran ordered that reporting restriction were to be applied to the case for the interim period but it would be revisited at the next sitting.
The 23-year-old was immediately placed on the sex offenders register after he pleaded guilty.
