Former RTÉ worker jailed for sexually grooming girl
FORMER RTÉ producer Kieran Creaven sent an obscene image of himself to a ‘young girl’ and said he wanted to “cuddle her” in a four-month long grooming process.
It also emerged that the 55-year-old paedophile watched child pornography involving girls as young as eight and was in constant contact with up to 20 teenagers online.
Creaven was yesterday jailed for 18 months at Leeds Crown Court after pleading guilty to two child sexual offences.
The married Dubliner received an 18-month jail term for attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming and a 12-month sentence for inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. The sentences will run concurrently.
Disturbing evidence was outlined by prosecutor Kitty Colley about how Creaven sexually groomed a person he believed to be a 13-year-old girl named ‘Kealy Nutton’, sending hundreds of messages daily.
He set up a fake Facebook profile under the name Jimmy Cee and purported to be a man in his late 30s. He also befriended hundreds of adolescent and teenage girls through this account.
The profile of the young girl named Kealy Nutton was in fact a fake Facebook account set up by paedophile hunting group Predator Exposure, which used a decoy to engage with Creaven.
Early on in the conversations the sex offender sent the decoy a picture taken in a bedroom of him holding his erect penis. In one message, the court heard he said: “Wish you were here in bed with me warm and snuggled up, I’ll keep you wrapped up in my arms all night, smell your hair and kiss you.”
Creaven also used his profession as a producer to entice the young girl, who was “clearly impressed by this” according to the prosecution. By October he arranged flights to Leeds to meet the teenager but had to cancel this trip due to illness.
However, in November he flew over to Leeds on the pretence of meeting with a 13-year-old girl. He said he would pretend to be the young girl’s father in the hotel, and would sneak into her room late at night.
But instead he was confronted by members of Predator Exposure, which streamed the encounter live on Facebook.
When searched he was found with a list of names of young girls, two mobile phones and two boxes of condoms.
Giving details on Creaven’s depraved background, the prosecution said that he masturbated to child pornography involving girls and boys as young as eight, and that he chatted online to up to 20 teenage girls aged between 13 and 18.
Creaven also admitted to posting images and information of children online who blocked him on Facebook. Defence counsel Ian Cook said that the incident had left Creaven’s marriage shattered and he had expressed relief at his arrest.
A sexual harm prevention order was also drafted and restrictions were placed on Creaven accessing a phone with internet capabilities and being in the company of children.
Judge Simon Phillips said that the aggravating factors were the significant level of planning that went into meeting the young child and sexual nature of the images he sent.
Creaven is also under investigation by gardaí in relation to accessing child pornography and to establish whether he committed similar offences in this jurisdiction.