Man posed as teenage girl on Facebook to ‘sexually exploit boys’

A young man posed as a teenage girl on Facebook in order to sexually exploit boys, a court has heard.

The man, who was 19 at the time, convinced three boys aged between 13 and 14 to send him sexually explicit pictures of themselves and to masturbate via an online video link.

He later told gardaí he didn’t think there was anything wrong with what he was doing and that he did it to explore his sexuality.

Judge Mary Ellen Ring said she would deal with the issue of publishing the man's identity at his sentencing hearing next October.

She remanded him in custody and ordered him to undergo further risk assessment by the Probation Services.

Senior counsel Pádraig Dwyer, defending, said his client was a young man with a full-time job who had no previous convictions and who had not offended since.

The judge said details of fake social networking accounts used by him should not be published. Two accounts were set up: as a 14-year-old girl and a 14-year-old bisexual boy.

The Dublin man pleaded guilty to three charges of exploitation of a child and two counts of defilement of a child at locations in Dublin on various dates between April and October 2012.