A man who exposed himself to a five-year-old girl at a children's party in Co Roscommon has avoided a jail sentence. But he's been warned he'll be imprisoned if he steps out of a line during a suspended sentence. Roscommon Circuit Court heard this offence happened at a kids' party in May 2024. A 22-year-old man, who can't be named to protect the anonymity of the victim, showed his penis to a five-year-old girl in an upstairs bedroom of the house. He pleaded to exposing his genitals intending to cause fear, distress, or alarm to another person. But Judge Kenneth Connolly noted he later told a probation officer he went into an unoccupied bedroom and engaged in an act of self-gratification and the child walked in.
He said this was a very different scenario to that he'd pleaded guilty to. He said this 're-writing of the facts' was a 'significant aggravating factor'. The judge said, even if what he accepted what he called the 'bizarre and sanitised version', it would be very odd conduct in a neighbour's house. He said the child had been adversely impacted, with a victim-impact statement saying it had taken away the innocence of her childhood. He noted the man was at high-risk of sexual-offence reconviction, according to a probation report.
He also noted how the incident came on the back of his 'significant alcohol intake' and mental-health difficulties. Judge Connolly said he made a 'genuine' apology and had now been off drink and drugs for two years. He gave him a one-year prison sentence but fully suspended it for five years but warned him it would be activated if he stepped out of line.
