THE CRIMINAL Court of Appeal has ruled to increase the duration of a sentence previously handed down to a man who sought sex with teenage boys online.
Daniel Lasota (45), originally from Poland, admitted meeting a 15-year old boy at a playground in County Limerick to have sex.
The self-employed accountant, of Carr Street, Limerick, was jailed for six years at the Court of Criminal Appeal, after it found his original sentence, of two and a half years with the final 18 months suspended, was an “error in principle” and “unduly lenient”.
Mr Lasota’s original sentence was imposed on him at Limerick Circuit Court in March 2024, after he had pleaded guilty to one count of meeting a boy for sex, and two counts of using communication technology to facilitate the sexual exploitation of a child.
Prosecuting barrister Lily Buckley told the court that on August 2, 2019, Lasota accessed the Grindr dating app and began communicating with another user “with a view to sexually exploiting his first cousin, who was a child of 15 years of age”.
Ms Buckley said Lasota offered to pay the user €40-€50 “to have sex with this child” and the other user, who was using the screen name ‘Young’, did not reply.
Lasota also asked for nude photographs of the boy, the court heard.
An investigating Garda told Lasota’s original sentencing hearing that the defendant had sought out “young boys for his own sexual gratification”.
On August 15, 2019, Lasota messaged the boy, who set up a profile on the app, and later met the boy at a playground in County Limerick.
“It was clear the victim was at school. The purposes of meeting in the playground was for sex,” Ms Buckley told the court.
Lasota, who admitted he knew the boy was not 18, told him he was “my type”, and that he drove the boy to Limerick City.
Ms Buckley said the boy grew concerned and exited Lasota’s car as it stopped at traffic lights.
“He got out and went to another car and indicated he thought he had been kidnapped, and (Lasota) drove off,” Ms Buckely said.
The other motorist alerted a passing Garda car and Lasota was eventually tracked down after Gardaí harvested CCTV footage of his Volvo car.
The boy told Gardaí that his Grindr profile had stated he was 18 years old, but Ms Buckley said “the accused (Lasota) admitted it was obvious (the victim) was a child”.
When Gardaí traced Lasota to his home, they searched the property and seized his mobile phone, which yielded messages “offering to pay” for sex with the boy, and included “references at stages in the communications to children aged 11 and 12 years of age”, said Ms Buckley.
The prosecuting barrister said one of the offences against Laosta was in respect of a second young boy, and that, “in the view of the Director of Public Prosecutions”, Lasota’s original sentence, which was imposed in respect of all three counts against him, was “out of kilter with the gravity of this offence, and therefore unduly lenient”.
In its judgment, the Court of Appeal found that the offence relating to the second child “should have yielded a separate sentence”.
Mr Lasota’s barrister, Yvonne Quinn, said Lasota had no previous convictions, was a self-employed accountant, and he was “profoundly ashamed of his actions”.
She said the age of sexual consent in Lasota’s native Poland is 16, but that Lasota knew it was 17 in Ireland and “thought he (the boy) looked young”.
In summing up its judgement, the court said it had “difficulty in accepting” the conclusion of a psychotherapist report that found Lasota was of “low risk” of reoffending, as Lasota had not provided the psychotherapist with the “full details” of his communications with others on the Grindr app.
