garda\u00ed<\/a> after reading a media report about O\u2019Brien\u2019s previous conviction for possession of child sexual abuse material, known in law as child pornography, for which he received a suspended 20-month prison sentence in 2022.<\/p>\nAn investigating garda outlined how O\u2019Brien had indecently assaulted the girl on one occasion while she was staying at his house when she was either 15 or 16. He was aged in his 30s.<\/p>\n
In 2023, O\u2019Brien contacted a relative of the woman, telling him he was drunk at the time of the incident, walking in his sleep and did not realise what he had done until the morning. <\/p>\n
In a victim impact statement read to the court by the investigating garda, the woman said the ordeal changed the trajectory of her life.<\/p>\n
She said \u201cto survive, I became an expert at boxing the trauma away\u201d but \u201cit was a jack in the box\u201d. <\/p>\n
She said the trauma drove her to push people away and to leave home at 17, moving abroad to ensure she didn\u2019t bump into O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n
She said hearing about him committing another offence \u201cturned my stomach to its core\u201d and that going to garda\u00ed was the \u201cmost traumatic experience of my life, second only to the assault\u201d. <\/p>\n
She said the criminal process was terrifying and cross-examination was \u201cincredibly painful\u201d. <\/p>\n
She said she refuses to be silent any longer and asked the court to recognise not only the assault but the \u201c35-year shadow it has cast over my life\u201d. <\/p>\n
Imposing sentence on Tuesday, Judge Sin\u00e9ad N\u00ed Ch\u00falach\u00e1in said the court accepted this was an opportunistic offence, but noted the age difference between O\u2019Brien and the girl. <\/p>\n
She noted the impact on the woman and expressed the court\u2019s hope that the jury\u2019s verdict would give her the comfort of knowing she was believed and that O\u2019Brien\u2019s acceptance of the verdict was an acknowledgment of his wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
The judge noted O\u2019Brien\u2019s previous conviction occurred many years after the offending in this case, which itself took place more than 35 years ago, the difficulties of serving a custodial sentence for the first time and his age.<\/p>\n
She imposed a three-year sentence, with the final 12 months suspended for one year in light of O\u2019Brien\u2019s age and to incentivise rehabilitation. <\/p>\n
The judge directed O\u2019Brien to undergo supervision by the Probation Service for one year post-release and to engage in any offence or victim-focused work deemed appropriate. <\/p>\n
At an earlier hearing, the investigating garda agreed with defence senior counsel Alice Fawsitt that O\u2019Brien complied with a suspended sentence he received for possession of child sexual abuse material and that he has no other pending matters. <\/p>\n
Fawsitt said her client accepts the jury\u2019s verdict. She noted his conviction for possession of child sexual abuse material \u201ctriggered the complaint in this matter\u201d.<\/p>\n
She submitted it is at the lower end of the scale for offences of this nature.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien has a long work history, family support and a number of medical issues, which may make his time in custody more difficult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who indecently assaulted a teenage girl more than 35 years ago has been jailed for two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[956,9,10,73168,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-470599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-criminal-courts","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116525563015657592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}