Dungiven paedophile Kieran O’Kane, (31), who groomed, abused and even video-recorded himself having sex with the child was handed a 44-month sentence.

Antrim Crown Court heard he told the girl “the younger you are the better” when she said she was only 14 and urged her to call him ‘Daddy’.

Passing sentence, Judge Alistair Devlin praised the “considerable strength” of the victim who he said had shown “courage and bravery” in seeing the case through to the end.

He said he hoped that both she and her foster carer could take “some comfort from a sense of closure” now that the case has concluded.

Turning to O’Kane, Judge Devlin said it was perfectly clear he “knew perfectly well” that his victim was just 14-years-old, that she was vulnerable due to her home situation and was less than half his age when he was engaged in “persistent” sexual communication and abuse.

The Co Derry man will serve half his sentence in jail and half under supervised licence conditions, with the judge also ordering him to sign the police sex offenders register for the rest of his life and be made the subject of a 10-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

At an earlier hearing, O’Kane, from Columbia Park, Dungiven, admitted 36 sex offences including seven counts of sexual activity with a female child, four counts of sexually communicating with the underage girl and one of inciting her to take indecent pictures.

O’Kane also admitted 22 counts of making and possessing indecent images of a child and two charges of having extreme pornography on dates between October 2021 and March last year.

Judge Devlin said the offences came to light in February last year after the victim’s foster carer “identified sexual content on her mobile phone” including a number of high sexualised messages from a man named as Kieran.

There was also a video of the teenager performing a sex act on a male in a VW vehicle.

Among the messages the victim had told the defendant clearly that “she was 14” but instead of cutting off contact, O’Kane told her “the younger you are the better.”

Other messages revealed that he discussed sexual positions, asked her to “call him Daddy, he called her baby and later as ‘my dirty little secret’,” said the judge.

It was also clear from the messages that O’Kane had driven from Dungiven to meet the girl on at least one occasion.

The victim had a video recorded interview with detectives where she outlined how she had met O’Kane on a residential retreat around Christmas and it was shortly afterwards he began to message her through social media.

She told police the first time he picked her up in his car, he “kissed her passionately,” touched her private parts and had sex with her.

The pair met again in January and it was at that time when O’Kane video recorded her performing a sex act on him before he had sex with her again, said Judge Devlin.

He described how the sexual communication charges and some of the indecent image charges relate to explicit images of the victim which police uncovered on his phone in circumstances where O’Kane had asked the girl to “send him nudes.”

There were other indecent images of children found but when O’Kane was first arrested and questioned he denied knowing or meeting her, and denied there was anything indecent on his phone or that her DNA would be found in his car.

Judge Devlin said O’Kane had “lied extensively” to police but he had admitted his guilt in court which had spared the victim from having to relive her ordeal as part of a trial and he had expressed remorse for his offences.

In jailing O’Kane, Judge Devlin ordered that as part of his licence conditions and his SOPO the pervert is disqualified from working with children.