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Man who 'groomed and targeted' 13-year-old girl for sentencing today

A man is to be sentenced today for having sex with a 13-year-old girl after befriending her on a social networking site.

The 24 year old pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two charges of defilement of a child at his home on April 29, 2011

The 24-year-old Dublin man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, used a false name and claimed to be 19 when he requested a friendship with the teenage girl on Bebo.

He later admitted the lie but they became friends on another social networking site and swapped phone numbers.

They sent each other texts, some of a “sexual nature”, before arranging to meet outside his local supermarket.

He then brought the 13 year old girl back to the home he shared with his parents and had sex with her twice.

He told his father he was giving her a guitar lesson.

Gardai arrested him when the girl identified his house. Judge Mary Ellen Ring said she had concerns that the man had both “groomed and targeted” his victim – she'll sentence him today.