A 22-year-old man has been jailed for nine years for the rape of two young girls that he met on Snapchat.
The Central Criminal Court heard that David O'Sullivan, previously of Bailick Road, Midleton in Co Cork and St Vincents Avenue, Woodquay in Galway, groomed the children for months before meeting and raping them.
The girls, who are from different parts of the country and not known to each other, were aged 14 and ten.
After O'Sullivan's arrest last March, gardaí found 1,629 files of downloaded child sexual abuse material on a mobile phone belonging to him.
Ms Justice Melanie Greally imposed a sentence of 11 and a half years for the rapes and for possession of child abuse material.
She suspended the final two and a half years on condition that he keep the peace, engage with sexual offence treatment, and not contact either of the victims for 50 years.
Detective Inspector Fergus Gaughan told prosecuting Senior Counsel John Berry that O'Sullivan was aged 19 when he met the first victim in June 2022 and told her that he was 16.
She was aged 13 at the time and told him this, the court heard.
O'Sullivan asked her to meet up a number of times but she said she did not really want to.
He showed up at her home, climbed through her bedroom window and they kissed.
The child's mother discovered him in the room and threw him out. They were clothed but the mother alerted gardaí.
Gardaí later stopped O'Sullivan near the girl's home at 1am and spoke to him.
The child's family was reluctant to press charges and he was given an adult caution.
O'Sullivan later bought the girl a mobile phone and a credit card which her parents were not aware of and he continued to contact her using this phone.
On a date in February 2023 he asked the child to meet him in a shopping centre.
They went to the stairwell of the building, gave her vodka and raped her.
Afterwards the girl called her mother. She came to pick her up and saw that her daughter was drunk and upset.
The child told her mother what had happened and gardaí were contacted.
O'Sullivan was arrested last January. He admitted knowing the victim, but denied any sexual activity. A file was prepared and the case was sent forward for trial.
The victim told the court that the rape left her feeling degraded and ashamed.
She said that she feels depressed all the time, has had suicidal ideation and feels broken.
She finished her victim impact statement by telling O'Sullivan: "I no longer want to be a victim. I want to be a survivor. You did not break my spirit. Your power is now gone".
In August 2024, O'Sullivan was living in Co Galway and made contact with a 10-year-old girl on Snapchat.
He said that he was 13. She told him that she was 14.
The conversation became sexualised with O'Sullivan sending an explicit image to the girl and asking her to send him similar pictures.
They began to meet and he bought her alcohol and vapes.
Det Insp Gaughan said that, over the following months, O'Sullivan continued to groom the victim.
This included a pattern of meeting in fields and under road bridges where he would rape her.
On one occasion, there were other people in the area and some of them shouted at O'Sullivan that he was a paedophile.
The court heard that the victim believed she was in a relationship with him.
In relation to the sexual activity, she told gardaí: "He didn't give up so I gave in".
The girl said O'Sullivan told her that he would kill her father if she told anyone about him.
He also said that somebody had raped his sister and that he had killed this person and buried him.
This frightened the victim and she tried to block him on Snapchat, but he repeatedly created new identities on the platform in order to contact her.
At one point, Snapchat blocked O'Sullivan's phone because of the number of profiles linked to it, Det Insp Gaughan said.
He continued to send sexually explicit texts up to last March. On 26 December 2024, he asked her to send a photo and record a video.
Last March, the girl told her fifth-class teacher about O'Sullivan's behaviour after she had attended a lesson informing pupils about inappropriate sexual touching.
In her victim impact statement, she said that what he was doing was wrong, but felt that she could not say no him.
"I used to tell my mother I was going to see friends. I blame myself for lying. It's not my fault, he was just so skilled at what he was doing,
"When he forced me to have sex with him, it made me feel vulnerable," she said.
The girl added that, at times, she thought the only way she could make him stop was to die by suicide.
Det Insp Gaughan agreed with Senior Counsel Donal O'Sullivan, defending, that the defendant told gardaí that the second victim told him she was aged 17 and, in one message, said she was 15.
In September, O'Sullivan pleaded guilty to rape and oral rape of the first victim in February 2023.
He also admitted communication with a child for the purpose of sexual exploitation between June 2022 and February 2023.
O'Sullivan pleaded guilty to four counts of rape and one of oral rape of the second child on dates between August and November 2024.
He admitted communicating with the second child between August 2024 and March 2025 for the purpose of sexually exploiting her.
He also pleaded guilty to production of child abuse material in relation to asking the victim to send him a video of herself.
Counsel asked the court to consider the personal circumstances of the defendant who was adopted by an Irish couple after he was abandoned as a child to an orphanage in his native Russia.
He said that his client's adopted family were "decent people" who continued to support him while accepting that what he had done was "terrible".
O'Sullivan, his counsel said, wants to and is willing to engage in sex offending treatment.
Ms Justice Greally set headline sentences of ten and 15 years for the rape of the respective victims, to run concurrently.
She reduced the overall sentence to nine years in light of the "significant" mitigating factors, including the guilty pleas, and his young age at the time.
The judge also noted O'Sullivan's high level of candour to the Probation Service, the "deprivations of his infancy" and his "troubled adolescence".
She imposed two and a half years for the offence of possession of child abuse material to run consecutively.
Ms Justice Greally suspended this portion of the sentence for three years on condition that he engage with Probation Service supervision, including sex offender treatment, that he has no access to mobile phone apps frequented by children, and no contact with the victims or their families for 50 years.
