13-year-old girl attempted suicide after Dublin man harassed her
A 43-year-old Dublin man has been jailed for 18 months for harassing a 13-year-old girl - sending her menacing messages - and asking her for sex.
Terence Weldrege of Castlekevin Road in Coolock admitted carrying out the harassment, sexual exploitation and sending explicit messages between September 2011 and January 2012.
The court heard over a two-day period he tried to contact the girl 273 times.
The court heard the girl first got a text from Weldredge in September 2011. He said he had found her number written on a bus and claimed that he was 15 years old. The two began texting.
Knowing she was 13 years of age, he began to ask her for sex and to send her lewd pictures.
He also sent her a picture of a teddy bear and said “I love you” before asking her to “have his baby”.
When he sent her a picture of his face the following January, the girl could see that he wasn’t a teenager. She called him a liar and told him to stop texting her.
Over the following two days, he attempted to contact her 273 times and only stopped when she went to Gardaí and they took her phone.
In a victim impact statement, the girl said she could not sleep or concentrate at school because of him and that she felt depressed and alone.
She described how she attempted to take her own life, but was saved when her brother walked in and found her.
Judge Mary Ellen Ring suspended the last 18 months of a three-year jail sentence on condition that Weldredge continue to attend psychotherapy or other services as directed by the Probation Services.
