A 52-year-old Irish Army corporal who had sex with a 16-year-old schoolgirl has been jailed for 18 months by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for unlawful carnal knowledge and possession of sexually explicit images of the girl.
Paul Collins, of Mourne Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, pleaded guilty to unlawful carnal knowledge of a female under 17 at Upper Cross Hotel, Rathmines, on August 27th, 2005, and possession of child pornography on dates between April and December 2005.
Judge Katherine Delahunt said the girl and Collins first made contact when she had dialled a wrong number and got his voice mail. Judge Delahunt said there was not a pattern of deviant behaviour on Collins's part and he had not "groomed" the girl. She said the offence was in the "middle ranges of the scale" and placed him on the register of sex offenders. He had €10,000 available as a token of remorse which will be paid to the victim.
Garda Leanne Murphy earlier told Garnet Orange , prosecuting, that in 2002 the girl dialled the wrong number while trying to ring her mother's mobile.
She inadvertently made contact with Collins and messages and texts were exchanged "intermittently" between them and then stopped.
The communication recommenced in 2005 when the girl was 16 and Collins was 50-years-old. She agreed to meet him in Dublin and sent sexually explicit photographs of herself to his mobile.
Garda Murphy agreed with Remy Farrell, defending, that the sending of pictures "arose in a consensual context".
The girl travelled from her home in the midlands to meet Collins in July 2005 but nothing untoward happened.
In August 2005 he met the girl at Heuston Station and took her to a hotel in Rathmines. They had a drink and then went to a bedroom where they had consensual sexual intercourse.
After the incident the girl met friends on the train home who became aware of what had happened and told a teacher. The teacher spoke to the girl and then contacted gardaí.
Garda Murphy said Collins was an Army corporal stationed at Rathmines Barracks. He was separated but living with his ex-partner and had no children.
He made a voluntary statement in which he accepted that he had sex with the girl and that she was 16 at the time.