Paedophile jailed after sex attack on teen in alley
A “PERSISTENT paedophile” who dragged a schoolboy down an alleyway where he sexually assaulted and threatened the teenager has been jailed.
Ciaran Mcauley appeared at Belfast Crown Court for the incident last June, and also for grooming an 11-year-old boy.
Deemed a dangerous offender, Mcauley was handed a sentence of six years and three months by Judge Stephen Fowler QC, who imposed an additional period of six years on licence to protect the public.
Mcauley (32) had just been released from custody for similar offences and was living in a hostel on the Ormeau Road where he targeted his victim last June.
He later told a Probation Officer he felt attracted to the schoolboy, “chose” to offend, and was “excited” by offending in broad daylight.
Mcauley attended court via a videolink from Maghaberry, where it emerged that he pleaded guilty to seven offences last June.
Crown prosecutor Philip Henry said the incident occurred at around 7pm on June 21 last year, when the injured party was walking along the Ormeau Road.
The 14-year-old was wearing his school uniform and listening to music on earphones when Mcauley grabbed him and pulled him down an alleyway.
Mr Henry said the teenager started crying and hyperventilating, with Mcauley telling him
“be quiet or I’ll hurt you”.
Mcauley then forced sexual activity in the alleyway, and when the incident came to an end, Mcauley kissed the schoolboy on the cheek and threatened to kill him if he told anyone what had happened, before casually leaving.
The prosecutor said the scared schoolboy then contacted his family, who collected him from the Ormeau Road. He told his parents what happened, and after they informed the PSNI, officers attended the nearby hostel which houses sex offenders.
Mcauley was arrested and admitted his guilt.
Mr Henry said Mcauley also admitted a grooming offence dating back to 2014. In February of that year, the parents of an 11year old boy made a complaint to police about Mcauley.
Mcauley — who at the time was posing as an 18-year old — began communicating with the child via Facebook private messages, which continued for six weeks.
On February 27, 2014, Mcauley sent the child a series of messages urging the First Year student to meet him in the Waterworks in north Belfast.
Saying there was a “degree of frenzy” to these messages, Mr Henry revealed the child did not meet Mcauley, but instead told his mother about the communication.
The police were informed and Mcauley was arrested and interviewed. He later admitted a charge of meeting a child following sexual grooming.
Jailing Mcauley, Judge Fowler cited the alleyway incident as “a serious attack on a child by a persistent paedophile”.
Judge Fowler deemed Mcauley to be a dangerous offender due to the risk he poses to the public and said “it is clear he is sexually attracted to young boys and is unable to control those feelings.”