A teenager has received a suspended sentence for the sexual abuse of his younger sister.
The boy, who is now 16, is from the south of the country, and had pleaded guilty to 21 counts in the district court.
The boy admitted to recording some of the sexual abuse of his sister, and uploading it to the internet at the encouragement of others.
In sentencing, the Hon. Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring noted the boy had unsupervised access to pornography since he was six years old.
The Central Criminal Court heard the investigation began when a referral came about the uploading of pornographic images to a social media site in 2022, which brought them to the home of this family.
The court was told both children came from a very dysfunctional family unit, their father was much older than their mother and had died previously.
The court heard they had an unconventional house, with timer frames, shipping containers, and a number of caravans, and the family considered themselves off the grid with no dental or medical supervision of the young children.
The children had been taken out of school and were allegedly being homeschooled, but there was little educational input.
The boy made admissions, and when a tablet was seized, gardaí discovered 140 images of the young girl alone, as well as over 15,500 images and 17 videos.
He said he had been given a tablet when he was five years old and had unsupervised access to pornographic images from the age of six; he sometimes spent over 12 hours a day accessing pornography.
The young girl was taken from the family home in 2022, and she eventually disclosed the abuse to child specialist interviewers.
She said she had only told her mother, and the court heard the mother appeared not to have taken any action.
The boy, who was 13 at the time of the offending, pleaded guilty to six counts of oral rape, nine counts of the production of child pornography, and six counts of the distribution of child pornography.
He was represented in court by Senior Counsel Michael Bowman, Caroline O'Connell BL, instructed by Eimear Griffin from the office of Pádraig O'Connell.
Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring said the significant aggravating factor is the breach of trust between brother and sister, and the taking of photos of the abuse, while in mitigation, he had no previous convictions, fully cooperated with gardaí, and is still a child himself.
He also made admissions and a guilty plea at the earliest available opportunity.
In a short victim impact statement, the girl said she feels much happier in her foster home, that she doesn’t like to talk about the things that happened her, and she would really like an apology from her brother.
The court heard the girl has a physical reaction to his name being mentioned.
Ms Justice Ring said it’s clear that deficits in her early childhood have been managed and she has done well over the past two years, while her social worker and guardian both say she is doing well in school.
She said that the boy had unsupervised access to pornography by age seven took her breath away, and no adult would hesitate to take a box of matches away from a seven-year-old.
She said this raises significant questions for the tech world generally and for lawmakers.
Ms Justice Ring set a sentence of four and a half years, suspended entirely on conditions, including he continues to engage with probation services.
