Former Irish Times sports journalist Tom Humphries is due to be sentenced this morning for sexually abusing a young girl in his north Dublin home.
The court heard the 54-year-old spent two years grooming her.
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’s now in her early 20s, says she felt ashamed by what happened and was left depressed and suicidal.
Mr. Humphries was taken into custody earlier this month and will be sentenced later this morning.
