Lengthy prison sentence for Waterford man who groomed and sexually abused young girl

A family man from Waterford who was living a double life when he groomed and sexually abused a young girl over a five year period has been jailed for 10 years.

David Kearney, aged 39, engaged in a “campaign of grooming” the girl from when she was 11 years' old and his appreciation for what he has done is “limited”, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring said as she sentenced him in the Central Criminal Court.

“It is clear that he was living a double life,” the judge said. “He was a partner, a father and hard worker on one hand - and a drug user and sexual abuser on the other.”

Kearney, of Cork Road, Waterford, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of sexually abusing the child, including charges of sexual assault, rape, oral rape and anal rape on dates between April 2019 and October 2023.

He also pleaded guilty to one count of using communication technology to facilitate the sexual exploitation of a child under the age of 17 during a similar time period.

The girl was aged between 11 and 16 years' old at the time of the abuse, while Kearney was in his thirties, with a partner and two small children. It occurred in various locations in Waterford and Kilkenny, the court heard.

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The young woman wished for Kearney to be named in the reporting of the case, Karl Finnegan SC, prosecuting, told the court.

The abuse came to light when Kearney sent a lewd text message to the teenager and she became upset and confided in her boyfriend at the time. He persuaded her to tell her mother and gardai were alerted.

Detective Garda Patricia Lonergan told the court that the abuse began when Kearney touched the girl inappropriately while she was in a mutual acquaintance's home. On other occasions, he pinned her down in a field and against a shed wall and sexually assaulted her.

When she got a phone aged around 12, Kearney started texting her inappropriate messages, and would pressure her to send him explicit photos. He also sent her photos of his genitals.

After the girl turned 13, Kearney started raping her. He would take her for drives before sexually abusing her. He anally raped her on one occasion in his car and also made her give him oral sex while he was driving the car.

He told the girl not to tell anyone, as he would get in trouble if he was found out.

In her victim impact statement, which was read out in court by her mother, the girl (now aged 17) said she is a survivor of sexual abuse.

“I spend all day pretending, smiling, laughing, acting like everything is fine, but the second I'm alone, it all falls apart,” she said.

She said the pain Kearney caused her and her family is “unbearable most days”.

“I was living a double life as a teenager,” she said. “...I was told if I told anyone he would go to jail, which means he knew what he was doing was wrong.”

She said Kearney told her he loved her. “But that wasn't love. I was being abused and I just didn't know it yet.” She said she had been left with “no dignity, no confidence and very insecure”.

The young woman said the sentence hearing marked a new beginning for her. Addressing Kearney directly, she said: “I hope you take the time to reflect about what you did to my life and the lives you destroyed. I'll never make apologies for how I chose to repair what you broke.”

Kearney put his head in his hands for much of the sentence hearing.

Passing down sentence this Friday, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring told the young woman that it is David Kearney who has lost his dignity, not her.

“The confidence and bravery required to tell about the abuse and go through this process shows she is stronger than she realised,” she said of the young woman, adding her good wishes for the future.

In relation to Kearney, the judge said he had engaged in “classic grooming” of a child that progressed to rape as he became “emboldened” and that he clearly knew it was wrong.

“Telling her he would get into trouble was transferring responsibility for his wrongdoing on to her in an effort to make her complicit in his offending,” the judge said.

His “lack of understanding and deflection” added to her concern that even at this stage, his appreciation for what he has done is limited, the judge said. “There is nothing to suggest (the abuse) would not still be going on if she hadn't told others.”

In mitigation, she noted Kearney's early guilty plea, his long work history and his lack of similar convictions. She set a headline sentence of 14 years, which she reduced to 11 and a half years.

She suspended the final 18 months of the sentence on a number of conditions, including that Kearney engage in a therapeutic programme for sex offenders and have no contact with the girl during his time in custody and for five years after his release.

She placed him under the supervision of the Probation Service for 18 months post-release.

Aidan Doyle SC, defending, said Kearney's relationship has broken down as a result of his offending. He said that at the time of the abuse, Kearney was abusing cocaine and alcohol and he was intoxicated for much of the period.

He has worked as a plasterer for the duration of his adult life and has two previous convictions for road traffic offences.

Mr Doyle said a Probation Service report before the court was “poor” and displayed that Kearney has shown little to no insight into the pain and damage he has caused to the complainant. 

He asked the judge to take into account a letter of apology by Kearney which he handed into court and which he said demonstrated shame and his client's acknowledgement of the profound breach of trust he had committed.

A number of testimonials were also handed into court.centr