A 40-year-old Westmeath man has admitted he tried to lure two teenage boys to perform sexual favours for him, but said he did it because he was lonely.
At Mullingar Circuit Court, sitting in Tullamore this week, Brendan Grehan of St Anne’s Terrace, Athlone pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a child over a 10-day period in November 2011.
His case has been adjourned for a psychiatric report, and for the Probation Service to assess what level of risk he poses and how that can be managed.
Sgt Cormac Moylan said Grehan, who has no previous convictions, met the 16-year-olds at a function where he offered to buy them drink.
When they checked to see if the phone number he gave them was real, he bombarded them with texts describing his own sexual activities and asking them to participate in sexual acts. He also sent them explicit pictures.
He told them he was bisexual and continued to send texts after one of the boys told him he was not interested and had a girlfriend.
Sgt Moylan said Grehan began by offering the boys alcohol and other incentives such as a Playstation 3 and PSP. He initially offered them items for free, but then said they would have to do something in return.
He eventually threatened that he would harm himself if the boys didn’t cooperate with his requests and fantasies, Sgt Moylan said.
The texts were mostly sent in the evening; however gardaí became aware of the inappropriate communications when Grehan sent a text during school hours and a member of teaching staff found out and contacted their parents.
The parents then contacted gardai who identified Grehan by the boys’ description.
Grehan apologised to gardaí for ruining the boys’ lives and said he had no intention of following through on the requests but sent the texts because he was lonely and needed someone to talk to.
However, he later admitted he had tried to lure them to perform a sex act.
He initially said he believed the boys were over 18, but accepted he knew they were younger when he offered to buy them the alcohol they were too young to buy themselves.
There were no victim impact statements as the young men want to move on with their lives and forget the incident, prosecuting counsel John Hayden explained.
Judge Anthony Hunt adjourned sentencing to July 8 when Grehan’s defence team will have a psychiatric report and will offer his explanation of events.
No plea in mitigation has yet been heard.
Judge Hunt also wants a probation report to assess the level of risk Grehan poses and see how that can be managed in the future.
