A man topped up a 15-year-old girl’s mobile phone credit so she could send him naked pictures of herself.
The man, who is now aged 31, appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court where he was charged with a number of charges of defilement of a child.
The man cannot be named for legal reasons.
Garda Sergeant Rory Harrison told the court that the man was 24 when he first began texting the girl when she was 14 years old.
However, the texting gradually led to meetings and the man admitted that he had sex with the girl on a number of occasions.
The girl was studying for her Junior Certificate when he first had sex with her.
Details of their meetings as well as a range of texts between the pair were read out in court.
The man also asked the girl to send him pictures of herself naked but when she said she did not have credit he topped her credit up on her phone.
The man also sent a number of sexually explicit texts to the girl.
The court was also told that the man was aware the girl was aged 14 and that she was aware he was 24 when they began seeing each other.
The court was told the girl’s mother, who was in court, became aware of the contact between the two when her daughter was just 14 years old.
She had contacted Gardai immediately to raise her concerns and the man was later formally arrested.
After the man first appeared in court he broke his bail conditions and made contact with the girl and told the girl that he may be “locked up” for what he had done.
He also asked the girl to put some pressure on her mother to drop the charges against him.
Barrister for the accused man, who pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual exploitation and three charges of defilement of a child, Mr Colm Smyth, said his client had undergone a psychiatric assessment.
He said the report said the accused was psychologically vulnerable and had cognitive difficulties
He said his client had no previous convictions of this nature and that he faced serious issues trying to return to his community after the sentence had been passed because of the nature of the case.
Judge John Aylmer adjourned the case to consider the sentence.