Judge asked not to jail man who groomed girl (15) for sex

A man who created a fake social media profile to chat to a 15-year-old girl before having sex with her is to be sentenced in January.

Conor O’Keefe (26) pretended to be a teenage girl called “Julie” on the website Tagged.com and started chatting with the victim. He later claimed he was Julie’s older brother “Adam” and persuaded the girl to get a taxi to his house in the early hours of the morning where they had sex.

O’Keefe, Oakdale Close, Ballycullen, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to having sex with a child in July 2011. He was found guilty of a further count of sexual exploitation of a child by a jury last month following a three day trial.

The court heard on Monday O’Keefe’s partner had given birth to their first child on Sunday.

O’Keefe, an apprentice plumber, has no previous convictions and is now on the sex offenders register. He was aged 22 at the time of the offences.

Damien Colgan SC, defending, handed in a probation report and a psychological report. He asked the court to consider non-custodial options.

Judge Sarah Berkeley adjourned sentencing until January 12th next to allow her consider the case.

O’Keefe faces a maximum possible sentence of 14 years imprisonment on these charges.

Security feature

During the trial the court heard Tagged.com allowed children to set up profiles but featured a security feature which made them invisible to adult users.

O’Keefe admitted to setting up a profile called “Julie” so he could view the under 18s version of that site.

Garda Lisa Duffy told Fiona Murphy BL, prosecuting, that “Julie” added the girl as a friend in July 2011 and later Julie’s brother “Adam” messaged the girl using her account.

The victim’s profile said she was 15-years-old and she had told “Julie” she was 15.

Early on the morning of July 30th, 2011 “Adam” asked her if they could meet up, she initially said she had no way to get to his house but later took a taxi with “Adam” giving directions and paying the driver €45 when she arrived.

They went to O’Keefe’s bedroom and talked. She said he was “bugging” her about performing oral sex on him but she refused. She later agreed to have sex. O’Keefe stopped having sex with her after asking if it was hurting her.

Afterwards he fell asleep and drove her home the next morning.

Garda Duffy said the girl later spoke to a relative and gardaí were alerted. The girl gave a description of where O’Keefe lived and he was arrested.

O’Keefe accepted he was the person involved and was fully co-operative, answering all questions.

Mr Colgan submitted this was a “once off” event. He said O’Keefe had found he could not interact with his peers and found himself depressed and isolated leading to him creating the false profile.

He said it was of significance that nothing of a sexual or exploitative nature was spoken between the parties prior to them meeting. He said O’Keefe was continuing to engage with a psychologist.

During the trial all of the factual evidence was agreed between the prosecution and defence and the sole issue for the jury was if O’Keefe intended having sex with the girl when he communicated with her.

The Sexual Offences Amendment Act 2007 states that a person is guilty of an offence if they communicate with a child on two or more occasions with the intention of meeting them for sexual exploitation.