A 19-year old Limerick teenager wept in court after entering guilty pleas to stalking one female and sexually assaulting another in Shannon town on dates over a two week period in August 2025.
At Ennis Circuit Court, the male teenager pleaded guilty to a stalking offence where at a location in Shannon on August 1st 2025, he admitted to intentionally or recklessly causing a female to fear that violence would be used against her or cause serious alarm or distress to her which that had a substantial adverse impact on her usual day to day activities.
The guilty plea is contrary to Section 10(2) and (9) of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997, as substituted by Section 23 of the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2023.
The teenager was aged 18 at the time of the offences and has been on remand in custody since August of last year and from the custody suite of the court, he also pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of a female at a different location in Shannon town on August 16th 2025.
That charge is contrary to Section 2 of the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990, as amended by Section 37 of the Sex Offenders Act, 2001.
Counsel for the accused, Patrick Whyms BL (instructed by solicitor, Daragh Hassett) said that his client has been in custody since the date of the second offence.
Mr Whyms said that his client is just 19 years of age and has taken a pro-active approach to the case with a very early guilty plea.
Mr Whyms said that it is an obvious case for probation supervision and said that he would be seeking at the sentencing hearing that supervision would form part of the sentence.
Mr Whyms accepted that there will be a custodial element to the sentence. Mr Whyms said that he was not seeking a Probation Report in the case.
Judge Francis Comerford further remanded the teenager in custody to appear before Ennis Circuit Court for July 24th for sentence.
