Woman in the Midlands who sent sexual images of young daughter to stranger receives suspended sentence

A woman who sent sexual videos and images of her eight-year-old daughter to a man via Facebook messenger has been given a three year prison sentence, which was suspended for five years.

The woman, who cannot be named due to the nature of her offences and the young age of the victim, appeared last week before Judge Kenneth Connolly at Longford Circuit Court for sentencing.

The accused is charged with causing a child to watch sexual activity. She is also charged with sexual exploitation of the child.

The third count on the indictment is one of child cruelty. All incidents took place between April 1, 2020, and February 27, 2021.

Guilty pleas were entered to the first two counts on the indictment in May 2023 and October 2023 respectively. The third count will be taken into consideration.

Judge Connolly, when passing judgement, said that the offending was of a “terribly disturbing nature”, as the woman was “initiating live contact with men on a video feed, which involved very graphic live content”.

The child, he said, was given alcohol and allowed to talk to strangers online. Her top was also pulled up and parts of her anatomy exposed for the men on the video calls.

A total of 961 videos were recovered from the phone of the accused, with a significant number of those involving highly sexual conduct.

“This behaviour was utterly criminal,” said Judge Connolly.

The extent to which the child was exposed to watching sexual content and the extent of sexual exploitation is “something that will affect her in years to come”, he said, and has most likely “mixed up her boundaries and understanding of what is appropriate and inappropriate behaviour, which was utterly distorted at a young age”.

“This wasn’t just a person of trust, but her mother and sole guardian, who failed her very poorly. The accused has let both herself and her daughter down,” he said.

He noted that the accused was “at an extremely low range of intellectual functioning”, was easily manipulated and there was “evidence of sexual deviancy”.

“Perhaps her own deficits in that regard provide some context,” he said.

He also noted the accused had her own “very significant difficulties of a sexual nature” as she herself was a victim of sexual misconduct in the past.

Judge Connolly was glad to hear that the woman’s two youngest children are currently “thriving, happy and well cared for in the same foster placement”, and their mother is employed full-time. She has also attended 18 out of 21 of her court-ordered One in Four therapy sessions.

Turning to sentencing, Judge Connolly set a sentence of three years in prison on count one on the indictment, which he suspended for five years.

He adjourned the final sentence for the count of sexual exploitation until February 11, to allow the accused to be assessed for suitability for community service.