A 26-year-old student who pleaded guilty to the attempted abduction of a five-year-old child in Dublin last year has avoided jail and been given two weeks to leave the country.
Visak Rajesh Leela, who lived in south Dublin but is originally from India, was given a three-year suspended sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Judge Martin Nolan said this was an unusual case and he had concluded that Leela was not a danger to children.
Leela had been in Ireland for ten months at the time of the attempted abduction, with a plan to stay on to complete a masters qualification in marketing.
The 26-year-old said he was intoxicated at the time and "two minutes of a mistake" had ruined his life.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told Leela had been attending a party in an apartment block in north Dublin on 4 September 2024 where he had had four drinks - a whiskey and three shots of Jagermeister.
His lawyer said Leela did not usually drink much.
When he was leaving at 9pm, he met two young children playing outside the apartment block.
Garda Laura McDermott told prosecuting counsel Jane MacGowan that the brother and sister went inside.
Leela then signaled at the younger child, aged five, to let him in and ran after him.
On CCTV footage, he can be seen holding the boy towards the door as the child tries to wrestle free.
Ms MacGowan said the footage shows him pushing the boy through the door and outside.
The court heard the boy's "very quick thinking" older sister ran out and pushed Leela in the back causing him to fall into bushes.
The two children then managed to get back inside and he left the scene.
The children's parents immediately notified security at the apartment complex and gardaí were alerted.
The organiser of the party he had attended phoned him to come back and Leela returned a short time later.
Leela's defence counsel Greg Murphy said his client had made full admissions and had never disputed the facts.
His lawyers told an earlier hearing in the district court that it was "extremely misguided, foolish horseplay by a drunk man".
Judge Nolan said Leela had "little or no memory" of what happened and was intoxicated at the time.
It was thought Leela had mixed up the identities of the children, thinking they were his nieces and nephews.
Leela spent three months in custody after his arrest.
A previous court hearing heard he had been bullied, assaulted and threatened before being granted bail, and despite being on bail he was scared to leave the house.
Judge Nolan said that "while any offences involving children are serious offences" he did not believe a custodial sentence was merited.
He said Leela had no previous convictions, was in the low-risk category of re-offending and had lived a "narrow" life, spending most of his time in his house since it happened
He sentenced him to three years in prison but fully suspended the sentence.
Judge Nolan ordered him to leave the country within two weeks and not return to Ireland for a period of ten years.
