Oh well, he’s exceptionally gifted, so that’s ok then.

A teenage boy who used his phone to film young girls undressed in a changing area at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin has been spared a custodial sentence and a criminal record.

The 17-year-old “exceptionally gifted student”, who cannot be named because he is a minor, had pleaded guilty to two offences under the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act for knowingly possessing two videos on his mobile phone at the centre in Blanchardstown on a date in 2022. He was aged 14 at the time.

Garda James Grogan had said the teen used his phone, which was placed on a kiosk floor, to film girls aged five and nine as they were undressed, and breast and vagina areas were visible. One of them was not identified.

He pleaded guilty to possession of the photos but not to making them? Possession is bad enough but jeezus h christ putting his phone on the floor so that little girls age five and nine would stand over it and he would get photos of their genitals is horrific.

If this nasty piece of work is really all that “gifted” he should be able to figure that out for himself.

Judge Kelly highlighted how the teenager had engaged fully with the Probation Service, which confirmed that he excelled academically.

He has been barred from swimming due to the offence, and the judge expressed hope that would give some comfort to the victim.

Oh yes, I’m sure that’s hugely comforting. Anyway he’s not “barred from swimming”; he’s barred from swimming at the centre in Blanchardstown and maybe centres in other places, but a judge can’t bar him from swimming in local rivers and ponds and similar.

In a mitigation plea, defence counsel Doireann McDonagh told the court her client, who had moved to Ireland a few years before the incident, had experienced bullying and separation from one of his parents due to Covid.

Therefore, he had to sneak photos of little girls’ crotches. He was bullied, so his recourse was to harm and shame little girls.