A man has appeared in before a special court sitting on multiple charges related to an alleged campaign of grooming and child sexual abuse.
The accused, who is aged in his forties but cannot be identified at this time to protect the complainant, faces a total of 15 charges including rape, engaging in and inciting sexual activity with a child, grooming, taking and possessing indecent imagery, incident a child to make a distribute indecency imagery, non-fatal strangulation, harassment, persistent misuse of communications network and using threatening or abusive behaviour.
A detective constable told Dungannon Magistrates’ Court the charges could be connected.
He explained on October 1 the complainant reported being groomed her from her early teens commencing in 2021 and disclosed prolonged sexual offending.
She said the defendant lived near her home and let her consume alcohol.
During one occasion he handed her his phone before adding her on Snapchat and they began messaging back and forth.
He then moved to a different area, but they rang each other every night.
She asked him to watch a film with her during which he began kissing her which progressed to full sex, which he asked her to keep secret.
The complainant regarded this a relationship which she ended in late 2022 but he began sending her, “hurtful messages as he was jealous”.
She removed him from Snapchat but by June 2023 he moved back to the original area and sexual activity resumed.
On one occasion it is alleged the defendant scaled a wall at her home and had sex with the child while others in the house were asleep.
The relationship continued with regular sex which “Nine times out of 10 she did not want and despite telling him no, he would force himself.”
She described instances of him gripping her so hard by the throat she thought she would pass out.
Throughout the relationship he allegedly checked her Snapchat location, demanding this was turned off for everyone but him.
He controlled her, becoming annoyed when she was with friends, continually accusing her of cheating and asking who she was with.
“Even after they broke permanently in July 2025 he repeatedly messaged, trying to resume the relationship,” said the detective.
“He still drives past her sounding the horn and continues sending unwanted messages, despite her asking him to stop.”
The defendant was arrested and during interview accepted having a relationship with the child, contending, “She said she fancied him , but he told her to wise up”.
He claimed he would sometimes take her for drives when she wanted out of the house and admitted, “He did fancy her at the time, but he was in a bad place and it was a pick-me-up.”
However he insisted he was never alone with her when he was drinking, stressing there were times she asked him to go to her bedroom but he refused.
He claimed she installed Snapchat on his phone as he didn’t know how and while there was sexualised messages back and forth, he never sent her images of his genitals.
When the complainant sent him a photograph – as he put it – “tits out” he told police he did not request it and knew it was an offence to have indecent child images.
While claiming to have deleted these, he declined to provide his phone PIN to police.
He admitted kissing and sexually touching the complainant he insisted this was with her consent and he may have said he loved her while he was drunk.
Objecting to bail the detective said: “Partial admissions were made during interview and his return home could cause community tensions. He also demonstrated unpredictable behaviour and alluded to harming himself.”
District Judge Alana McSorley refused bail and the defendant will appear again by video-link on October 15.
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