Two County Down men facing sex charges over contact with girl

Appearing separately at Lisburn Magistrates’ Court by video-link from police custody, 39-year-old Niall Cullen and Kris Mervyn Coleman, 37, confirmed they understood the charges against them.

Cullen, from the Hillsborough Road in Carryduff, faces charges of inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, facilitating the complainant to send indecent images of herself, engaging in sexual communication with the schoolgirl, purchasing alcohol for a minor, possessing indecent photos of a child and causing or inciting the complainant to become involved in pornography, all alleged to have been committed between January 1 last year and May 6 this year.

Coleman, from Thornwood in Banbridge, faces two charges each of having indecent images of the schoolgirl and buying alcohol to be delivered to a person under 18 in addition to single charges of engaging in sexual communication with the schoolgirl, distributing or showing an indecent image of a child and obstructing a police officer, alleged to have been committed between October 6 last year and May 3 this year.

When Coleman appeared, a prosecuting lawyer outlined that “essentially, this case is what I think is colloquially known as a sugar daddy case”.

The lawyer said that according to the evidence so far, Cullen was the first to contact the 13-year-old schoolgirl via social media and it was through him that she was introduced to Coleman.

Coleman allegedly asked the girl for sexually explicit images of herself and despite knowing her age, “he did nothing to stop contact”.

“He claims that she asked him to buy her alcohol but that was on the deal that she left her underwear in exchange with him,” said the lawyer, adding that Coleman also allegedly sent her videos of himself having sex with women.

The lawyer said Coleman told police during interviews the underwear request “wasn’t for sexual gratification but just out of curiosity, to see how far she would go before he called her bluff”.

She told the court there were concerns about Coleman committing further offences or attempting to interfere with the witness but defence counsel Kevin Magill argued that “conditions akin to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order could be imposed to alleviate any concerns”.

He highlighted that Coleman never actually physically met the schoolgirl but instead it was a matter of “leaving stuff at a location” which was then collected.

Mr Magill said while Coleman had admitted engaging in the contact with the teenager, “he gave an account where the messaging in relation to demands became very strong, bordering on blackmail, so he felt he had no choice but to do what he had been asked to do in relation to certain requests made of him”.

District Judge Eamon King ordered that Coleman could be granted bail but with certain conditions including handing over the passwords and PIN codes to all of his electronic devices.

In addition, Coleman was barred from contacting the complainant, having any internet-capable device and he must report to police three times a week.

When Cullen appeared, the PPS lawyer said he had allegedly played “a lesser role” so given the fact that Coleman was granted bail, the 39-year-old could also be freed “under similar conditions”.

Granting the same bail to Cullen, DJ King adjourned their cases to June 5.