{"id":484973,"date":"2026-05-14T21:38:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T21:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/484973\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T21:38:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T21:38:25","slug":"a-monster-in-my-life-limerick-man-jailed-for-destroying-innocent-11-year-old-girls-childhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/484973\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A monster in my life’: Limerick man jailed for destroying innocent 11-year-old girl’s childhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

A \u201cMONSTER\u201d who destroyed a young, innocent Limerick girl\u2019s childhood, much of which was \u201cspent crying myself to sleep”, has been jailed at Limerick<\/a> Circuit Criminal Court.<\/p>\n

The accused man – Michael White, aged 36, with an address at Kildrommin, Kilteely – pleaded guilty to two counts of causing a child to watch sexual activity at a location in County Limerick. Reporting restrictions were lifted on naming White but not the complainant, who was aged 11 and 12 at the time of the sexual offences which took place on dates in the past decade.<\/p>\n

A third count of causing a child to watch sexual activity was to be taken into account while a nolle prosequi (not pursuing) was entered on a fourth charge of a person engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, both on \u201ca full facts basis\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prosecuting barrister Lily Buckley, instructed by State solicitor Brendan Gill, outlined the evidence last week with the assistance of Detective Garda Lisa O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT:<\/strong>\u00a0Limerick teenager sentenced for unprovoked assault when he punched a 78-year-old up to 12 times<\/a><\/p>\n

White showed the young girl pornography on his phone or on a DVD player while putting his arm around her and cuddling into her, the court heard. The victim told gardai during specialist interviews that it was \u201cdisgusting\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Buckley said on one occasion White was holding his penis and beckoned the child into a bathroom but she ran away.<\/p>\n

White sent the complainant Snapchat messages that she was a \u201cbeautiful girl\u201d; her \u201carse would look good in leggings\u201d and she should wear thongs and G-strings.<\/p>\n

Ms Buckley said White asked the girl to take photos of lingerie in a store and bought her treats afterwards.<\/p>\n

White was arrested in 2023 after gardai were contacted. Officers conducted a search of his home and found a sports bag full of DVDs.<\/p>\n

The complainant, now an adult, read out her victim impact statement in court, just feet away from White.<\/p>\n

Fighting back tears, she said she is now a woman but \u201cthat’s not the person these horrible, life-changing things happened to\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened to me when I was a young, innocent 11-year-old girl. Today, he sits before you having pleaded guilty. He and I both know exactly what he has done to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing White as a \u2018monster\u2019, she said she doesn\u2019t have the words to properly describe the panic and the fear she felt.<\/p>\n

She said so much of her childhood was \u201cspent crying myself to sleep”.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened didn’t just affect me back then. It still affects me every single day. That gut-wrenching fear every time I hear his name, and I don’t think that’ll ever go.”<\/p>\n

The victim concluded her statement by saying it’s very important to her that the judge understands \u201chow serious this has been for me in my life\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be heard and protected, and that what I went through has not been forgotten, and I finally get some justice. Thank you for listening,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n

White was represented by Yvonne Quinn BL, instructed by solicitor Julianne Kiely<\/p>\n

In mitigation, Ms Quinn said that at the very outset, White wishes to express his genuine remorse to the complainant and to the complainant’s family.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is deeply ashamed of his behaviour. He comes before this court with his own family present. He is a first-time offender and he absolutely acknowledges the pain that he has caused the complainant. The accused has heard her very eloquent victim impact statement and he deeply apologises to her,\u201d said Ms Quinn.<\/p>\n

The barrister asked the judge to take into account White\u2019s guilty pleas.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe lived with his parents at the time. There is a background in terms of volatility, domestic aggression and alcoholism in the family home for a number of years when he was a young child.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is somebody that grew up in a rural part of the country. There were five siblings and lots of issues which necessitated himself and his siblings spending time in foster care.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not at all attempting to put forward any excuses for his behaviour,\u201d said Ms Quinn, who added that White was educated to Junior Cert level and has always been in gainful employment – driving tractors for contractors.<\/p>\n

The barrister said White is living with his partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the first time that he has moved out independently from his family home,\u201d said Ms Quinn, who handed the judge documents in relation to ongoing medical issues. She added that White has enrolled in a specialist counseling programme.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is genuine remorse. At the time, I would say that he lived and existed in what could only be described as a lonely and solitary environment for a number of years. The position now is that there is independence and stability,\u201d said Ms Quinn.<\/p>\n

Judge Fiona O\u2019Sullivan, in passing sentence, said the complainant described in her victim impact statement having “a monster in my life\u201d and \u201cremains affected every day\u201d.<\/p>\n

The judge said the victim spoke eloquently and bravely and is a \u201cvery impressive young woman\u201d.<\/p>\n

Judge O\u2019Sullivan, in mitigation, took into account White\u2019s guilty plea, his deep shame, remorse and acknowledgement of the pain he has caused.<\/p>\n

The judge imposed a jail sentence of four years and five months with the final 17 months suspended on one of the counts of causing a child to watch sexual activity. White was jailed for three years and eight months with the final eight months suspended on the second count. They are to run concurrently.<\/p>\n

White has been placed on the sex offenders register.<\/p>\n

There was no reaction from White as he was led away by prison officers who prevented a woman from embracing him as she handed him a suitcase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201cMONSTER\u201d who destroyed a young, innocent Limerick girl\u2019s childhood, much of which was \u201cspent crying myself to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[956,9,10,889,18,13,14,6,19,17,4490,11,12,83705,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-484973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-county-limerick","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kilteely","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-limerick-circuit-court","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116575096471329198","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484973","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=484973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}