A Slovenian man, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the victim, has been jailed after he harassed a Dublin teen online for over a year, eventually coming to Dublin and showing up outside the girl’s home.
The man, who was 21-years-old when he encountered the then 15-year-old girl on an online gaming platform while playing Roblox, believed that he was in a relationship with her in the midst of which he demanded that the child share “sexualised” images and videos of herself.
The accused pleaded guilty to harassment and possession of child sex abuse images.
Prosecuting counsel, Jane Murphy BL told the court that the victim wanted to take her own life to “get away” from the accused, but that the only thing that stopped her was that she was told that if she “left” the accused he would then target her family.
Detective Eamon Leen of Kevin Street Garda Station gave evidence of how the accused was arrested on the 27th of November last year after a friend of the victim approached Gardaí at Donnybrook station to alert them of what the victim was experiencing.
Detective Garda Keys from Donnybrook station approached the victim’s family, who the court heard were unaware of what their daughter was going through, which led to a series of meetings and a specialist interview with the victim.
Ms. Murphy told Judge Martin Nolan how the accused, who was supported in court by his mother and two officials from the Slovenian embassy, was contacting the girl everyday and would threaten to send the intimate images she had sent to her friends, family, and school, and send them to her home.
When the victim referred to self harm in respect of herself he told her she “was not doing it right” and to “do it better”, before getting her to “send more nudes” and “sexual videos” while making “many and consistent threats to her family,”.
By August 2023 the victim wanted to block the accused but she would “not allow her”, the court heard.
When the girl went on a family trip to London, he told her to phone him everyday and to send photos of what she was doing there,”.
He repeated his threats to share the intimate images of her if she did not comply, he also made a series of “rules” the girl had to comply with including to call him every night.
The child was also made to leave her phone propped up on video calls so he could “watch her all night”, and insisted that he she call him ‘daddy’, ‘babe’ or ‘baby’.
He also said that the pair would meet in person and “have sex”, telling the victim that if she didn’t want this he would “rape her”, the court heard.
The girl was also warned not to go to parties where “boys” were in attendance, and had to “ask permission” to go for a walk.
Didn’t want her to go to parties boys there ask permission if she going on walk.
Ms. Murphy outlined how, when the girl went to a Coldplay concert with her mother and siblings, the accused asked her why she hadn’t sought permission from him, telling her that he “couldn’t understand” this. He also threatened to “kill her” if she “stepped out of line”.
When the girl was in tears while on the phone to the accused he said he would “kill her” and called her “a stupid bitch”.
When the accused said that he would board a flight to Dublin, Gardaí attended the Ryan Air help desk where they were able to confirm that the accused had boarded a flight from Vienna.
When he arrived in Dublin he was arrested and conveyed to Kevin Street Garda Station where he was questioned.
During interview he described having online relationships with a girl in the Philippines, the USA, and one in Dublin. He said that he was in groups who would watch videos of people dying, of people abusing animals or children, and that he had become “addicted to gore”.
He maintained that he decided to come to Ireland despite not having heard from his “girlfriend” for two weeks as he had spent money on the trip and couldn’t cancel.
He was released without charge at this point, but was arrested again the next day after the victim’s father saw him “loitering” outside the family home.
After he was arrested he claimed that he was “lost” in Dublin as he didn’t have his phone, that he only had a map, and that he was looking for his Air BnB. When his phone, which had been seized, was analysed intimate images of the victim were discovered.
Child Sex Abuse Images
4 images of child sex abuse images were also discovered on his phone which depicted prepubescent children. One image of a prepubescent girl showed her private parts, with another depicting a child “tied up” with her “mouth covered”.
There was also an image of a male baby in a cot with his genial area, and an anime image of a little girl with her privates exposed.
The accused’s defending counsel argued that her client had not left Slovenia before, and that the victim knew “quite a lot of information about him”, but had not made an attempt to contact Slovenian authorities.
She said that her client would communicate with people and “buy them things to make them stay” in contact with him.
When asked to accept that the accused has, “Some quite serious mental health difficulties,” Detective Garda Leen replied, “I’m no professional.”
Victim Impact Statement
Ms. Murphy indicated that the accused wished to read her victim impact statement before the court, however when the girl entered the witness stand, she became emotional and was unable to proceed.
Her father read the statement in her stead which outlined how the girl felt her “story was important and needs to be heard”.
She said that before she had encountered the accused she was “outgoing” and “comfortable with myself” but that the ordeal had come about at a time when she was “struggling” with “changes to my body and self image” as well as her “attitude towards life” as a 15 year old girl.
She said she had used the internet to “step away from reality and my feelings”, not knowing that it would be “one of the biggest mistakes” of her life.
The girl said she felt that the only escape from the accused would be to take her own life which she contemplated “many times”, even planning how to go about this.
“The thing that stopped me was knowing that he would torment and target my family, ”she said.
“This terrified me and left me in so much pain” she said, adding, that the thought of “putting my family through that was too much”, which led her instead to “self harm” which became her “go to response”.
She said the threats to rape left her feeling “scared and embarrassed” and that she had “nightmare of it happening” and that her attitude towards her friends, family, and education all suffered.
She described losing a friend of her in the midst of the ordeal saying that this girl was “very close to my heart” and “I miss her a lot”.
The accused would pressure her to call him even when she was at school, and she found it “insanely difficult” to focus on her leaving cert studies, she wrote, as “every day became heavier than the last.”
She described experiencing “night terrors” and how, even though she is “physically free” the spectre of what had happened would “loom” over her.
She said she wanted help but felt “trapped and terrified”, describing how she would “lash out” at her parents and “yell” at them until they stopped asking what was wrong.
Sentence
The court heard that the accused was described in a psychological report as having “emotionally insatiable personality disorder”, “depressive disorder”, and “bipolar disorder”, although he lacks a formal diagnosis.
He spent a lot of time alone in his bedroom on the internet and would abuse alcohol and engage in self harm, his defending counsel said.
Judge Martin Nolan said that the “most striking” element of the psychological report was that the accused has “seems to think he’s done no wrong.”
He said that the court was aware of the “distressing nature of some of those communications” made while the accused had maintained that he was “in a relationship with her and struggling to understand that that relationship has come to an end,”.
He said that the nature of the harassment has been “graphically set out” and that the accused had “made her life miserable” and “blackmailed her with these images”.
He said the “daily communications” had caused the girl “great distress” and that “she was very troubled by the communications,”.
The accused thought his actions were “proper and ok”, adding, “It’s very hard to change your behaviour if you believe that what you were doing wasn’t wrong,” he said.
Judge Nolan said that the court cannot imprison some to “prevent future offending”, noting that the maximum sentence available was 10 years.
“He seems to have a lot of problems,” he said, adding, “he undoubtedly has mental health problems”.
Taking into consideration the accused’s lack of previous convictions and guilty plea, the court set a headline sentence of 5 years before setting an effective sentence of 2-and-a-half-years to be backdated to the 27th of February 2025 to give credit for time already served.
Noting that the court “cannot make a forever order”, Judge Nolan also ordered that the accused have no contact with the victim or her family for 25 years.
“If he does, that’s a criminal offence,” he said.