June 2015

Tipperary man jailed for raping young girl who believed he was her Dad

A Tipperary man who raped and sexually abused a girl for almost a decade of her childhood has been sentenced to 15 years.

Gardaí interviewed Michael Smith (53) about the abuse in 2004 after a search uncovered a video he had made of him raping her when she was eleven. However he was released without charge and travelled to the UK where he committed further abuse against another teenager girl he had groomed over social media.

Smith was jailed in the UK in 2008 for this and possession of nearly 20,000 images of child pornography. He was extradited back to Ireland on his release last year and has been in custody since.

His Irish victim, Michelle Smith (29), waived her right to anonymity at the Central Criminal Court so her abuser could be identified.

Smith previously of Maplewood Way, Tallaght, Dublin pleaded guilty to nine counts of rape, two counts of oral rape, one count of possession of child pornography and one count of assault causing harm of Ms Smith at Dublin city addresses in Rathmines, Tallaght and Cabra on dates between 1994 and 2004. He is originally from Clonmel.

The victim wrongly believed that Smith was her father during the abuse which began when she was eight years old and Smith was in a relationship with her mother. He would make her sleep in his bed and rape her several times a week while sometimes filming her.

Today Mr Justice Carroll Moran said the aggravating factors in the case are as bad as he’s ever encountered and noted that the Probation Service believe he continues to represent a high risk to the community.

Mr Justice Moran imposed a 15-year sentence but suspended the final three years in light of Smith’s early guilty plea when he was brought back to Ireland last year.

The judge noted that Smith had not “absconded” to the UK as he had not been charged at the time. However he said that Smith did leave knowing that he might have to face arrest here.

Mr Justice Moran praised the Ms Smith for the “restrained and dignified” nature of her victim impact report in which she wrote that Smith raised her to be what he wanted her to be and that she continues to suffer the effects.

“The horror of what that young girl had to bear consistently and over such a long period of time does not bear contemplating,” he added.

The judge also ordered that Smith have no contact with the victim or children on his release and that he not stay in the same house as a child.

The Probation Service had requested that he be forbidden from using a camera or camera phone on his release and that he also be barred from using the internet. However Smith’s defence counsel suggested that these conditions would be unconstitutional and would result in Smith being “a social exile” on his release.

The judge said this was a well made point and instead ordered Smith to comply generally with the directions of the Probation Service on his release.

Sergeant Paul Maher said that Smith, who has no previous Irish convictions, was jailed in England for engaging in sexual activity with a child, inciting a child to engage in sex and possessing indecent material. He was given an indeterminate sentence with a minimum of three years and served six.

Sgt Maher told Caroline Cummings BL, prosecuting, that the victim reported her father’s abuse in March 2004, when she was 17 years old. She said she had been continuously sexually abused by him from the age of eight.

Smith moved between various Dublin residences over the years and would have regular sex with his victim at these addresses. The victim told gardaí she thought the sex was normal and that Smith had on several occasions recorded the abuse on a camcorder.

Smith also punched her in the face, slammed her head into a wall and slapped her till she wet herself out of fright on one occasion at the Maplewood Way address.

Following the victim’s complaint to gardaí in 2004, a search warrant for Smith’s home and workplace was obtained and cassettes were recovered with recordings of the victim.

The victim revealed in a statement, read out in court, that nobody knew about the abuse and a lot of people had liked Smith.

“Anyone can by a predator and you’d never know unless the victim speaks up,” she said.

She added: I find it very hard to sleep at night with all the thoughts, questions and memories in my head.

Describing a lonely and terrified childhood, she said: “This was not a one-off thing that left after effects. I don’t have a life…He raised me to be when he needed me to be. This is all I know.”

Sgt Maher said Smith left Ireland shortly after he had been interviewed voluntarily by gardaí.

English authorities stopped Smith in 2008 with a 15-year-old girl, whom he had groomed online for sex by posing as an older teenage boy about three years previously.

Smith was also caught with nearly 20,000 images of child pornography at the lowest level of seriousness according to a UK scale and 19 images in the most serious category.

He was extradited back to Ireland after his release from a UK prison in October 2014.

Sgt Maher agreed with Pauline Walley SC, defending, that her client’s guilty pleas had spared the victim the trauma of a trial.

He further accepted that Smith had completed two sexual offences courses while in jail in England.

Past abuse

Ms Walley submitted to Mr Justice Carroll Moran that her client “fully accepts the appalling catalogue of abuse meted out to the injured party.”

She said her client had suffered abuse in his family home in Clonmel, Co Tipperary and was sent to an industrial school from the age of ten to 16.

Counsel said Smith was physically abused and saw other types of abuse at this institution. She submitted that the pattern of Smith’s early life “imprinted him” in later years.

She said Smith’s remorse is genuine, as evident in his early plea, and that he has expressed willingness to engage in other treatment programmes in jail.

June 2015

Child rapist moved to UK ‘AFTER’ gardaí saw a video of him raping 11-year-old girl

A child rapist was able to travel to the UK and commit further offences after being interviewed by gardaí in Ireland who had seen a video of him raping an 11-year-old girl.

Michael Smith from Tipperary groomed, raped and sexually assaulted the girl, who he considered to be his daughter, for 10 years before going to the UK where he was jailed for grooming and sexually abusing a teenage girl he meet through a social media site.

The Central Criminal Court heard that the Irish victim went to gardaí about the abuse in 2004 and a follow-up search uncovered a recording of him raping the child when she was 11.

Smith was interviewed voluntarily and went to England shortly afterwards.

Smith previously of Maplewood Way, Tallaght, pleaded guilty to nine counts of rape, two counts of oral rape, one count of possession of child abuse images and assault causing harm of Michelle Smith at addresses in Rathmines, Tallaght and Cabra on dates between 1994 and 2004.

Sergeant Paul Maher revealed that Smith, who has no previous Irish convictions, was jailed in England for engaging in sexual activity with a child, inciting a child to engage in sex and possessing indecent material.

The Irish victim, who has waived her right to anonymity, believed that Smith was her father at the time of the abuse. The victim said that the abuse began when Smith lived with her mother.

He would take her out in the car at night, park outside a factory and assault her. The abuse escalated when Smith moved out of the family home and rented a flat in Sunbury Gardens.

The victim went to live with Smith for a year when she was 11 or 12 years old. During that time they slept together in a single bed and he began raping her. After sex, Smith would thank her and say goodnight.

Sgt Maher told Caroline Cummings BL, prosecuting, that the victim reported her father’s abuse in March 2004, when she was 17 years old.

She said she had been continuously sexually abused by him from the age of eight.

Smith moved between various Dublin residences over the years and would have regular sex with his victim at these addresses. The victim told gardaí she thought the sex was normal and that Smith had on several occasions recorded the abuse on a camcorder.

On one occasion Smith told her to strip slowly in front of a camcorder, telling her it would give him something to watch during the week. This happened a further five or six times, she said.

Sgt Maher said the victim also told him that Smith punched her in the face, slammed her head into a wall and slapped her till she wet herself out of fright on one occasion at the Maplewood Way address.

Following the victim’s complaint to gardaí in 2004, a search warrant for Smith’s home and workplace was obtained and cassettes were recovered with recordings of the victim.

Sgt Maher told Ms Cummings that one recording depicted Smith having sex with the victim when she was 11 years old.

Victim’s statement

The victim revealed in a statement, read out in court, that nobody knew about the abuse and a lot of people had liked Smith.

“Anyone can by a predator and you’d never know unless the victim speaks up,” she said.

She added: “I find it very hard to sleep at night with all the thoughts, questions and memories in my head.”

Sgt Maher said Smith left Ireland shortly after he had been interviewed voluntarily by gardaí.

English authorities stopped Smith in 2008 with a 15-year-old girl, whom he had groomed online for sex by posing as an older teenage boy about three years previously.

Smith was also caught with over 19,000 images of child abuse 

He was extradited back to Ireland after his release from a UK prison in October 2014.

Sgt Maher agreed with Pauline Walley SC, defending, that her client’s guilty pleas had spared the victim the trauma of a trial.

He further accepted that Smith had completed two sexual offences courses while in jail in England.

Ms Walley submitted to Mr Justice Carroll Moran that her client “fully accepts the appalling catalogue of abuse meted out to the injured party”.

Past abuse

She said her client had suffered abuse in his family home in Clonmel, Tipperary and was sent to an industrial school from the age of ten to 16.

Counsel said Smith was physically abused and saw other types of abuse at this institution. She submitted that the pattern of Smith’s early life “imprinted him” in later years.

She said Smith’s remorse is genuine, as evident in his early plea, and that he has expressed willingness to engage in other treatment programmes in jail.

Mr Justice Moran remanded Smith in custody until sentence finalisation on Friday.

 July 2008

‘Some of the worst paedophile material’

A paedophile who groomed young girls on the internet has been described as a collecter of some of the worst material a police officer has ever seen.

Michael Smith of Church Road, Hayes, was jailed for at least three years on Thursday for multiple charges of sexual activity with children.

He was caught in January this year when officers stopped him in his car with a 15-year-old girl, while he was driving without insurance.

The girl later told police Smith, a labourer, had forced her into sexual activity on more than one occasion.

A search of Smith’s address led to the seizure of a number of computers and other storage devices.

Following an analysis conducted by the Met’s High Tech Crime Unit, Smith was discovered to be in possession of approx 20,000 indecent images of children including many movies.

In his 20 years of being a police officer, Detective Sergeant John Price said material found on Smith’s computer was indescribable.

DS John Price of Hillingdon Police was heading the Sapphire Unit at the time, which investigated the case.

He said “After the first search nothing was found. But I know how these people work and wanted the property searched again.

“That was when we found all the material. Almost 10,000 of the images were of young girls from a web camera.”

He added: “I have been a police officer for 20 years and this was some of the worst paedophile material I have ever seen.”

DS Price said since Smith moved from Ireland in 2004 he had been grooming girls on the internet from that time onwards.

Under the guise Ben Tyler’, Smith pretended to be 18-years-old, and used internet popular internet teenage chat rooms Bebo, Habbo and MSN to engage with young girls and eventually go on to groom them.

Although Smith has been convicted, DS Price still feels there are other victims they do not know about.

He added: “We know he has met at least another girl but we do not know who she is. He has been grooming other girls and we have got evidence of that.

“I am also convinced he has victims all over the place, not just in Hillingdon.”

“He used the internet as a tool to hand-pick his young unsuspecting victims,.

“They believed they could trust Smith and never thought for one minute they would be speaking to a predatory paedophile that would go on to violate their trust.”

He asked for other victims to come forward and speak to police.

He said: “I appeal to them to come forward and call West Drayton Sapphire Unit on 0208 246 1583.

“All calls will be treated with the utmost confidence.”

Smith was jailed for the protection of the public and must spend at least three years behind bars before he is eligible for parole.

He must also sign on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.