CONVICTED CHILD SEX offender Tom Humphries has been released from prison after serving 22 months of his two and a half year sentence for the sexual exploitation and defilement of a child.

The former Irish Times sports journalist pleaded guilty in March 2017 to six offences dating from 2010 and 2011.

Humphries began texting the victim in late 2008 when she was 14, initially contacting her about camogie – she had tried out for the Dublin development camogie panel and he was a volunteer coach with underage teams. 

This contact continued until 2011 and became increasingly sexual in nature. During his trial the court heard around 16,000 text messages were sent between them over a three-month period alone.

On one occasion, Humphries picked the then 16-year-old up from her school on a Sunday and went to his apartment where he sexually abused her.

The girl told gardaí she met him on five occasions during which oral sex and other sexual acts occurred, but not full intercourse.

Details of the inappropriate contact between Humphries and the girl emerged by chance.

In March 2011, he gave his daughter a phone that was due to be donated to a charity shop. When she put a SIM card into it, she saw messages that had been saved to the handset.

She told her mother, from whom Humphries was already separated, and gardaí were informed.

The victim in the case, who is now in her 20s, has said she had “feelings of guilt and shame” and suffered from depression, feeling suicidal at times. 

She went through counselling for a year-and-a-half but said she still had to deal with a “constant battle”, including permanent flashbacks and severe panic attacks.

Humphries was sentenced in 2017 to was sentenced to two years for sexual exploitation and two-and-a-half years for defilement, with the two sentences to run concurrently. 

Judge Karen O’Connor said at the time that the offences were on the upper end of the mid range of offending.

Humphries, now 56, was released from Midlands Prison this morning after serving 20 months.