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Ronaldo “Samantha” Otto: three victims, two sexual assaults and consecutive prison terms

Ronaldo Otto, who goes by the first name Samantha, first received a fully suspended sentence after pouring boiling water over a man who rejected Otto's advances. While that sentence remained in force, Otto sexually assaulted an 18-year-old. Months later, Otto targeted a vulnerable 20-year-old on a bus. The final five-year term was ordered to begin only after the earlier sentences expire.

Published 31 July 2026 · Remigration Ireland case ledger
3 incidents2019, 2022 and 2023
3 victimsNames withheld
2 sex offencesSeparate young men
8+ nominal yearsStated custodial terms

This file uses the legal name Ronaldo Otto and records the reported name Samantha Otto so searches for either lead to the same court history. Court reports say Otto is transitioning and goes by Samantha. That personal detail is recorded neutrally; it neither creates guilt nor diminishes the three adjudicated offences.

The victims are not named. Two were young men subjected to sexual assaults, and the third suffered a boiling-water attack after rejecting Otto's advances. Their experiences, rather than speculation about Otto's identity, are the centre of this record.

Arrival from the Philippines

Otto is originally from the Philippines. Defence counsel told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that Otto operated a hair salon there and came to Ireland in 2011 after being invited to work in another salon. Later vocal-cord difficulties reportedly ended that work.

The cited reports describe Otto as a foreign national and as originally from the Philippines. They do not establish present citizenship, the original visa category, any protection claim, a removal decision or a deportation order. This page therefore makes no claim about Otto's legal immigration status.

2019: boiling water after rejected advances

The first conviction followed what Judge Pauline Codd called a period of harassment. A man Otto met at the Empire Casino on Burgh Quay gave Otto his phone number. Otto then sent him sexual messages. He said he wanted only friendship and eventually threatened to block the number if the messages continued.

Otto repeatedly asked to be unblocked and, on one occasion, followed the man onto a bus after asking to go home with him. On 27 April 2019, the man again said he did not want to speak to Otto. Later, while he sat at a slot machine, Otto approached with a cup of boiling water and poured it over his face.

The victim sustained burns to his face, neck, shoulders and chest. He later moved home because he no longer felt safe. Otto pleaded guilty to assault causing harm.

On 20 October 2020, Judge Codd imposed three years' imprisonment but suspended the entire term. She identified the harassment and the utterly unprovoked nature of the attack as significant aggravating factors, while taking account of Otto's previous good character and personal difficulties.

2022: sexual assault while the suspended term remained active

On 26 October 2022, an 18-year-old who had recently left secondary school was walking through a Rathmines laneway wearing headphones. Otto beckoned to him. When he approached, Otto cupped his penis through his trousers. He told Otto to back away and rejected an offer of oral sex. Otto tried to touch him again.

The young man recorded part of the incident on his phone and reported it to Gardaí. Investigators identified Otto through CCTV. When interviewed, Otto claimed the teenager had carried out the assault and chose a trial. A Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury found Otto guilty in May 2025.

The victim described being forever changed and said the court process had been gruelling. Judge Codd found that Otto's attempt to blacken his character was unnecessary and egregious. Although the touching occurred over clothing and did not involve physical violence, she described it as a gross violation of the young man's bodily integrity. Otto had not pleaded guilty or spared him from giving evidence and expressed no remorse.

On 21 July 2025, Otto received a three-year prison sentence and was placed on the Sexual Offenders Register. Because the offence breached the earlier suspended sentence, six months of the 2020 term was reactivated. The reports do not clearly state whether that six months runs concurrently with or consecutively to the three-year sexual-assault term, so this file does not manufacture an aggregate figure.

2023: a second young man followed from a bus

The offending did not end with the 2022 incident. On 1 February 2023, Otto encountered a 20-year-old man who had been diagnosed with autism and ADHD as a child. The court heard that the young man used a disability card when boarding a Dublin Bus and that Otto would have seen it.

Otto followed him upstairs, sat beside him, asked for his phone number and dialled it to make sure it rang. Otto then began groping his leg and crotch. When the young man left the bus, Otto followed.

Otto put the victim's arm behind his back, brought him down a laneway, undid the drawstring on his trousers and performed oral sex on him. The victim said he felt unable to leave because Otto threatened him. Afterwards, Otto placed €20 in his pocket and later sent him a message.

The young man told his parents and attended a Sexual Assault Treatment Unit. Specialist Garda interviewers took his account. Dublin Bus CCTV helped identify Otto, and DNA recovered from the victim's trousers matched Otto.

The victim said he had felt depressed since the assault and that his formerly happy life had changed. Otto pleaded guilty to sexual assault.

Five more years, expressly consecutive

On 18 February 2026, Judge Orla Crowe imposed a five-year term. She described Otto's conduct as predatory and intimidating, found the victim was without doubt vulnerable and noted there was no expression of remorse beyond the guilty plea.

Crucially, the five years do not replace the earlier punishment. Judge Crowe ordered the new term to commence only on the lawful expiration of Otto's existing sentences for sexual assault and assault causing harm.

The published record therefore establishes at least two stated custodial terms totalling a nominal eight years: three years for the 2022 sexual assault, followed by five years for the 2023 sexual assault. The separately reactivated six months belongs to the 2019 assault sentence, but its relationship to the three-year term is not stated clearly enough to call the aggregate eight and a half years. Remand credit, remission and actual release dates are also not established by these reports.

A repeated pattern after leniency

The sequence matters. The first victim rejected sexual advances and was burned with boiling water after sustained unwanted contact. The court responded with a fully suspended three-year sentence. While that sentence remained active, Otto sexually assaulted an 18-year-old who repeatedly refused further contact.

Just over three months after that sexual assault, Otto followed a visibly vulnerable young man from a bus and committed another sexual assault in a laneway. The 2026 judge then made the five-year term consecutive to the earlier punishments.

The 2020 decision was not a finding that the boiling-water attack was minor. The judge expressly called it unprovoked and aggravated by harassment, but chose suspension because Otto then had no previous convictions and had presented personal mitigation. Later offending breached that conditional chance.

Chronology

The public-cost trail

The State response included separate Garda investigations, CCTV recovery from multiple locations and Dublin Bus, DNA testing, specialist interviewing, a Sexual Assault Treatment Unit examination, a contested jury trial, several sentencing proceedings and long-term imprisonment. The victims also describe serious and continuing psychological consequences. No department has published a case-specific taxpayer total, and no legal-aid figure is available in the cited record.

The Irish Prison Service reported that the 2024 average annual cost of an available, staffed prison space was €99,072. Applying that later system-wide rate mechanically to the nominal three-year and consecutive five-year terms gives a capacity benchmark of €792,576.

That figure is not an invoice. It deliberately excludes the separately reactivated six months because the reports do not settle whether it adds to the aggregate. It also uses one later annual rate for sentences imposed in different years and does not establish time actually served, remand credit, remission, healthcare cost or prison placement. Investigation, courts, prosecution, legal aid and victim services cannot be added without published figures.

Release and immigration limits

No cited source records an appeal against the two sexual-assault convictions or the latest sentence. Nor does the located reporting establish an actual release date, a removal order, deportation proceedings or Otto's present immigration status.

Origin in the Philippines and arrival in 2011 are reported facts. A criminal conviction alone does not prove that a non-citizen is automatically removable, and the legal tests and administrative record are not disclosed here. This page records the convictions and sentences without inventing an immigration outcome.

Sources

Record checked: 31 July 2026. Ronaldo Otto and the reported name Samantha Otto refer to the same offender. Victims remain anonymous, immigration status is not inferred and the reactivated six months is kept separate from the eight-year nominal benchmark.