Ex-RTE producer snared by paedophile hunters is jailed

AN 18-month jail sentence handed to a paedophile former RTE producer has been criticised.

Kieran Creaven admitted grooming a 13-year-old girl and attempting to engage a child in sexual activity.

He was arrested after a sting operation by so-called paedophile hunters, and appeared before Leeds Crown Court for sentencing yesterday.

Creaven received 18 months in jail for attempting to meet a child after sexually grooming her and 12 months for attempting to incite a child into sexual activity.

The sentences will run concurrently.

Last night, the woman who set up the fake teenage girl’s Facebook profile which snared Creaven criticised the sentence.

The care worker — part of the controversial Leeds-based group

Pleaded guilty: Kieran Creaven

Predator Exposure — said: “I think he should have got more. I think 18 months is a slap on the wrist, really.”

Leeds Crown Court heard that Creaven had an obsession with pornography and watched sexually explicit videos involving children as young as eight.

In one exchange with the decoy he said he wanted her “underneath the covers to snuggle her” and to “hug her, smell her hair and kiss her”.

When arrested on November 18 following the sting operation by Predator Exposure, he had a list of names of young girls, two boxes of condoms and two mobile phones.

The court also heard how he attempted to travel to Leeds on an earlier date to meet what he believed to be a child, but this trip had been cancelled due to illness.

Creaven’s defence counsel said that he had had an addiction to pornography and alcohol over the last 10 years and that he was relieved to have been arrested.

Creaven had been employed by RTE since 1998.

The grooming took place over a four-month period in 2017 in which he sent vile messages to a person he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.

However, the ‘child’ was a member of a vigilante group.