Meath businessman avoids jail after flashing young girl leaving her in shock and tears

Logistics company manager Steven Russell pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to exposing his genitals intending to cause fear, distress or alarm.

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• 16:43, 25 JAN 2024

This businessman has avoided prison after he exposed his genitals to a young girl and asked her ‘Do you want to sleep with them?’ – leaving her in shock and tears.

Logistics company manager Steven Russell also asked the young girl ‘Do you love them?’ while moving his hand up and down his penis after he called her over to his car he was sitting in, a court has heard.

The 47-year-old, of Cooper Hill, Julianstown, Co Meath pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to exposing his genitals intending to cause fear, distress or alarm to another person on September 8, 2020 in Balbriggan, Co Dublin.

He has no previous convictions. Judge Martin Nolan imposed a one year prison sentence which he suspended and ordered Russell to pay the child’s parents €5k to help with her counselling and therapy.

Judge Nolan said: “It’s an obnoxious sort of crime, fills most humans with revulsion.”

Detective Garda Colin Fitzpatrick of Balbriggan Garda Station told prosecuting counsel Fionnuala O’Sullivan, BL, the ten year old girl was walking to her friend’s house before school as she normally did after her mother walked her close to the house.

When she arrived at her pal’s house she was in shock and tears and told her pal’s mother ‘something happened.’ Gardai and the child’s mother were called and when they arrived she was ‘extremely anxious.’

The girl was referred to a Specialist Victim Interviewer, the court heard.

During the interview, the girl said a man in a blue/grey jeep had his window open and called her saying ‘Come here’ and asked her ‘Do you sleep with them? Do you love them’ and she said she looked down and he ‘had his thing out’ which referred to his penis.She demonstrated Russell was moving his hand up and down his penis, the court heard, and she ran away.

CCTV showed Russell’s Land Rover Discovery jeep stopping on a street in Balbriggan and the interaction between Russell and the child. The child is seen running away shortly afterwards.

Det Gda Fitzpatrick said the Land Rover’s registration was identified and two days later when gardai attended his home, Russell confirmed it was his jeep.

He also told gardai he had gone to work in Dublin that morning but then said “I think I stopped at the graveyard” to see his grandparents’ grave.

He was arrested and interviewed on two occasions and denied the offence and “did not accept any interaction with the girl,” the court heard.

Three different trial dates were listed as he was contesting the charge of a more serious offence but then pleaded guilty to the lesser charge, the court heard.

Defence barrister Dominic McGinn, BL, said Russell has a “solid work background as a manager of a logistics firm,” “is of good character” and is a ‘family man’ who is 20 years married with three children.

Mr McGinn said “any offence involving a child has to be seen as serious,” but in mitigation said the “interaction was brief and there was no physical contact.”

“It was completely out of character and it has taken its toll on him. One can only imagine the social impact this has caused. He was in a dark place at the time as his father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and has since died,” said Mr McGinn.

“His mental health was exasperated with the ongoing proceedings.”

Mr McGinn explained that on the first trial date Russell was involved in a collision as the vehicle he was driving “was driven into a tree,” and he was hospitalised with serious injuries.

On sentencing Russell, Judge Nolan said: “It seems you’re a family man with family responsibilities. You were under stress and for some reason you committed this crime. It’s unknown why you did it. But you must have known by behaving this way you had a serious affect on this child.

“It’s impossible to know what was in your mind. It’s probably unlikely that you will reoffend,” the judge said.