Man jailed after he held girl (15) 'hostage' by threatening to leak naked photos of her

Sonya McLean

A man who held a 15-year-old girl “hostage” by threatening to leak naked photographs of her, having met the child through an online game, has been jailed for two and a half years.

The now 24-year-old Slovenian man initially met the girl in 2022 through the game Roblox. He cannot be named to protect the identity of the now 18-year-old victim.

They later began to communicate over various other social media platforms, during which they discussed self harm and he convinced her to send him sexualised images and videos of herself.

He then began to harass the teenager by threatening to leak these images to her family and friends if she did not do as he asked.

He insisted that she regularly ring him, share photographs of what she was doing, ask for permission to go on walks or attend concerts and also asked her to prop her phone up by her bed so he could watch her sleeping.

Victim impact statement

The girl stated in her victim impact statement that she “no longer felt like a person, more an object that he controlled”.

She said now that she is physically free, the memories of that time in her life “will probably loom over me forever”.

“I often wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self that she will eventually be free,” the teenager wrote before concluding her statement by describing herself as being “held hostage by someone who never had the right to”.

The man pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to harassment and possession of four images of child sexual abuse, which are termed child pornography in law, between December 2023 and November 2024.

These images were found on his phone after his arrest by gardaí in 2024. They are not images of the victim.

A psychologist's report outlined the man’s medical history. His mental health began to deteriorate as a teenager and was particularly acute by the time he was 19 years old. He then began abusing alcohol and self-harm. He had many referrals to psychiatric hospitals.

He has since been diagnosed as having emotional unstable personality disorder and is taking medication for both bipolar and schizophrenia, although he has not been diagnosed with either condition, the court heard.

Psychologist report

Judge Martin Nolan remarked that a psychologist's report concludes that the man has “difficulty understanding the wrong he has done”.

Judge Nolan said the man “undoubtedly harassed” the teenager and made her life miserable by blackmailing and threatening to leak the images. He said it caused her “great distress”.

He said he had looked through the psychological report and the most striking feature is that the accused “seems to think he has done no wrong”.

“That causes great difficulty. It is very hard to change your behaviour if you believe what you're doing was not wrong – hopefully his time in custody will, in a practical way, show him that what he has done wrong,” Judge Nolan said.

He accepted that man had cooperated with the garda investigation and made full admissions, that he has no previous convictions and has mental health issues.

Judge Nolan again commented that the man “had not shown great insight” into his offending behaviour before he said a headline sentence of five years was warranted.

He reduced that sentence to two and a half years, having taken into consideration the mitigating features in the case. The sentence was backdated to when the man went into custody last November.

Judge Nolan further ordered that he not have any contact, either directly or indirectly, with the victim for 25 years.

The now 18-year-old girl initially took the stand to read her victim impact statement, but became upset and was unable to do so. Her father read it out on her behalf.

She said writing the statement had been very difficult as she had to relive the events, but she said she believes it is important and needs to be heard.

She said prior to meeting the accused she was “outgoing and comfortable with herself”, but said she was dealing with issues of self-image and struggling with her mental health.

'A step away from reality'

She said the online world was “a step away from reality” and helped her deal with her feelings. She said she could not have imagined how drastically her life would change.

The teenager wrote that during that time she was being harassed by the accused she felt the only way she could escape from it was to take her own life.

“I was in such pain and felt this was the only way,” she wrote but the thing that stopped her was that he threatened to continue to torment her family and friends if she herself died.

She said she was terrified and left in such pain and she took out on that pain on herself. She said self-harm became her “go to response”.

“I now carry reminders of those times for life on my skin,” she continued.

She outlined how threats of rape issued by the man left her with nightmares.

She said his behaviour impacted her mental health, her relationship with her family and her motivation to work in school. She described the loss of a friend who she still misses.

“It still hurts that I can no longer call her my friend,” she wrote.

She said school became nothing more than a brief escape, but then the man pressured her to call him during her breaks in school.