Sweets-lure abuser admits playing football with boys

Gustav Dahm (40) of Beachside Glen, River Chapel, Gorey, Co Wexford, was back before Judge Carroll Moran at Tralee Circuit Criminal Court yesterday because he had broken an undertaking that he would not have any unsupervised contact with children.

He was also found to be in breach of an order that he stay away from his mother's guesthouse in Co Kerry while there were guests present.

Dahm was convicted in October 2006 of 23 counts of indecent assault, sexual assault and gross indecency involving two boys and four girls. The offences occurred over a 17-year period up to 2003.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, four of which were suspended if he agreed to certain conditions.

In April this year he admitted speaking to two boys, aged between 10 and 13, and kicking a football with them near his home.

INCIDENT

Probation officer Catherine Lambert told the court she had been told of the incident in April. Dahm admitted speaking to the boys and kicking a football around with them on his way back from the local shop.

"He realised what he was doing was wrong and withdrew from the situation. He admitted he had made a mistake," she said.

Following his conviction, he was ordered not to reside with his mother or adjacent to her property.

He agreed that the onus was on him and not his mother, who is in her 70s, to keep this condition.

Judge Moran said that because Dahm had been in breach of two of the conditions, he would be entitled to activate the four years of the sentence that were suspended.

"If anything like this happens again it's possible there will be an application to reactivate the sentence and it's also possible that I will do that," he warned.

hnews@herald.ie