Tom Humphries gets two-and-a-half years for grooming and sexual abuse of girl
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Tom Humphries has been jailed for two-and-a-half years for sexually abusing a young girl in his Dublin home after grooming her for two years.
Humphries was sentenced to two-and-a-half years for defilement and two years for child exploitation. He will serve two-and-a-half years in total as the sentences will run together.
The former Irish Times sports journalist pleaded guilty to the offences last March and requested he be taken into custody earlier this month.
The girl was just 14 when he first made contact with her in December 2008.
In March 2011, Tom Humphries’ daughter found some text messages between him and the young girl on one of his old mobile phones.
She showed her mother who then went to Gardaí to report him.
During the investigation, it emerged he first contacted the girl in December 2008 when she was just 14.
She told Gardaí she didn’t know how he got her number but assumed it was through her local sports club.
After a few months, he began sending her explicit messages and photos and after two years of regular texting, he collected her outside her school and brought her back to his apartment where the court heard they engaged in sexual acts.
The girl, who is now in her early 20s, says she felt ashamed by what happened and was left depressed and suicidal.