Jail for man who spied on boys in toilets

A COMPUTER expert who spied on children in public toilets using hidden cameras, and placed secret cameras in his bathroom, has been jailed.

Kieran Griffin showed no emotion as he was sentenced to a total of three years in prison for a range of sexual offences by Judge John Aylmer at Letterkenny District Court, in Co. Donegal, yesterday.

The 57-year-old had pleaded guilty to a range of offences including making child pornography and possessing child pornography.

Griffin had studied computers at Letterkenny Institute of Technology, the court heard.

Gardaí first became aware of him when he was spotted engaging in lewd behaviour in the toilets of Letterkenny Shopping Centre in Co. Donegal on July 8, 2016.

He was using a covert camera wrapped in a newspaper to spy on young boys in the toilets.

At the time, Griffin was found in possession of two phones, a memory card and a covert pen camera. Gardaí then obtained a search warrant and in a raid of his home at Cashel, Fanad they seized a number of items, includ‘If ing a Sony laptop and other hard drives, as well as a five-page child pornographic story.

All the items were sent for analysis to the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau in Dublin.

Detective Garda Stephen McGonagle outlined to the court the contents of the material found on Griffin’s computer.

He revealed how the covert camera pen had been placed in Griffin’s bathroom at the home he shared with his elderly mother.

The video recordings showed Griffin setting up the camera and then it showed a young woman using the bathroom, including scenes of her naked, showering.

Other material found on hard drives on the laptop seized showed Griffin engaging in seminaked chatting, in a sexually explicit manner, to boys as young as 14 years old.

Det Gda McGonagle told the court he had been told by fellow detectives who specialised in such investigations that it would be ‘next to impossible’ to identify the boys involved.

Detectives interviewed Griffin on a number of occasions and he later pleaded guilty to a range of charges, including possession of child pornography and engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour on dates between 2011 and 2017.

The accused man’s brother, John, took to the witness stand and said the investigation had ripped his family apart but that Griffin was still his brother.

‘None of us would attempt to condone this in any way,’ he said, adding that he had broken the family trust.

He added that if his brother went to prison his elderly mother, whom Griffin was now a carer for, would have to go into a home.

she has to go into a home I don’t think she’ll survive very long,’ he said.

The accused man was asked to take the stand and he apologised to his victims and to his family for all he had put them through.

Judge Aylmer went through each of a large number of offences committed by Griffin.

These included six charges of producing child pornography.

He said he placed Griffin’s offences in the mid-range and said these charges merited a term of four years.

He further sentenced Griffin for charges of possession of child pornography for 18 months, but this was reduced to 12 months.

He said that he would also suspend the last 12 months of the four-year jail sentence on the agreement that Griffin agreed to comply with the probation services and other authorities for two years from when he was released from jail.

Filmed a young woman showering Griffin was his mother’s carer