THE SENTENCING OF sports journalist Tom Humphries for the sexual exploitation and defilement of a child is scheduled to take place later this morning.
Humphries (54) of Sutton, Co Dublin, a former high-profile journalist with the Irish Times, previously pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to four counts of inviting a child to participate in a sexually explicit, obscene or indecent act between January 2010 and March 2011.
He also pleaded guilty to two counts of defilement of the child (the girl in question had been 16 at the time) at a place in Dublin.
The court heard that Humphries made contact with the girl through his volunteer work with junior sports teams.
The sentencing in the case had previously been adjourned on a number of occasions, most recently on 3 October.
On that occasion, the court heard a lengthy victim impact statement from Humphries’ victim in which she said that his actions had resulted in the loss of her childhood and of her trust in men.
Several testimonials were delivered to the court in support of the defendant, including statements from the chief sports writer of The Sunday Times and a well-known sportsman about Humphries’ journalism career and involvement with the GAA.
Medical reports previously delivered to the court meanwhile stated that Humphries continued to present a very real suicide risk and that he didn’t want psychiatric treatment because he felt that “he deserved to feel psychological pain”.
The report from Dr Paul O’Connell said that Humphries was genuinely remorseful and genuinely suicidal.
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