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Journalist Tom Humphries to be sentenced for sexual offences against a child

A SPORT journalist and author is to be sentenced next month for sexual offences against a child.

Tom Humphries (54) from Corr Castle, Sutton in Dublin, pleaded guilty last March to six sexual offences against a girl aged under 17.

The former Irish Times journalist could not be named until now as he had been facing trial for further sexual offences.

Those other charges, in relation to a separate allegation, were dropped yesterday by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

In March last year, he pleaded guilty on the morning of his trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of defilement of a child in Dublin and four counts of inviting a child to participate in a sexually explicit, obscene, or indecent act on dates in 2010 and 2011. The acts occurred at an apartment in Dublin.

Yesterday, prosecuting counsel Shane Costelloe SC told Judge Karen O'Connor that the State is entering a "nolle prosequi" on three further charges involving a separate girl. This means those charges are not being proceeded with.

Humphries was present in court yesterday for the short hearing.

Judge O'Connor fixed a date for the sentencing for July 26.