Horrific on-line sexual abuse turns to physical sexual abuse in the Philippines

Creaven recorded sexual abuse, court hears

A former RTÉ Sports producer filmed himself sexually abusing a young child in the Philippines seven years ago while other children were in the room, a court heard today.

Kieran Creaven, with an address at Adelaide Street in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, has already pleaded guilty to ten charges.

He admitted sexually exploiting children in Dublin, three counts of sexually assaulting and exploiting children in the Philippines and possession of child pornography in the UK and Ireland.

He also admitted inducing or coercing a child to engage in an indecent or obscene act and communicating with a child using technology for sexual exploitation.

One of the victims was 13 years old, another was in the care of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency.

The Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was also told today that footage was recovered of Creaven with a child on a beach in Vietnam, but no charges arose out of this.

The Garda investigation into the child abuse activities of Creaven began after he was arrested in Leeds in the UK where he went to meet what he thought was a 13-year-old girl.

He was instead met by a group calling itself Predator Exposure and was handed over the UK police.

He subsequently pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming and attempting to engage a child in sexual activity and served nine months in prison.

Following a meeting between the UK police and the gardaí, the investigation was taken over by the Garda National Protective Services Bureau.

Detective Garda Johanna Doyle of the Online Child Exploitation Unit told the court that Creaven’s home was searched and electronic devices with child abuse material was seized.

Gardaí also made inquiries with Facebook, Skype, PayPal and MoneyGram and the names and email addresses Creaven had been using emerged from searches and admissions in the UK.

The 59-year-old was arrested and questioned in October 2020 but on the advice of his solicitor, made no comment throughout the interviews and nothing of evidential value was secured.

The detective told the court that two videos of Kieran Creaven sexually abusing a child aged between 10 and 12 in the Philippines were found on a micro SD HD card taken from him in Leeds.

At times Creaven records himself carrying out the abuse, while other times someone else records the video. An adult, another child and a baby can be seen in the room where the abuse occurred on 12 October 2014. Four days later a second video is recorded of Creaven again sexually abusing the same young girl in the same bedroom.

Exit and entry visas to and from the Philippines on his passport correspond with the dates.

The detective also told the court that she had worked in the area of child exploitation for 12 years and during the interviews she said: “I begged him to tell me who the child in the video was,” but Creaven exercised his right to silence and his answer to all questions was no comment.

Eighteen months later in July of this year, he invited the gardaí to interview him at the Midlands Prison to try and identify the child in the video in the Philippines, however gardaí were unable to establish who she was.

Gardaí also discovered another video of Creaven talking to a young girl on a beach in Vietnam. However, the court was told there was no offence recorded here and the reason it was raised was to show he had previously travelled to South East Asia.

The court was also told that sexualised conversations with children were found on a HP device with Creaven talking to children in the Philippines as the abuse took place. In one conversation, an adult is in a room with two children and Creaven is giving instructions.

The court was told he paid €40 to a person in the Philippines and told another on 15 October 2017: “I will send you dollars to your home address.”

He has admitted the offences of sexual exploitation of child outside the State, inducing or coercing a child to engage in an indecent or obscene act and communicating with a child using technology for sexual exploitation.

He also admitted to possession of sexualised images of a seven and 12-year-old child on a USB key and of a video on his Samsung phone of an adult male abusing a two-year-old girl.

The detective told the court that he used two different Facebook accounts to chat with children in Ireland – one was a 14-year-old boy, the other a 13-year-old girl. He sent an abusive image to the child who told gardaí he was “totally grossed out and nearly vomited”. The child logged out of the page and never went back.

He also told a 16-year-old girl online that he would like to have met her at a hotel room in Dublin where she was staying for a Justin Bieber concert. The child was in the care of Tusla at the time.

The victims declined to make a Victim Impact Statement.

Kieran Creaven wrote a letter of apology to the judge which was read out in court today. He said he wanted to express his deep apologies to all the people he had hurt and damaged physically and emotionally by his abhorrent behaviour, particularly to the girl in the Philippines.

He said he was deeply ashamed and he hopes these girls are safe. He also apologised to his wife and family and described his arrest in Leeds in November 2017 as a good thing.

He said it had brought him back from a dark spiral he was going down into, he had lost touch with his moral compass and conscience. He said it gave him time to reflect on how he had taken the wrong path and with self-examination of what led him to offend and one-to-one psychotherapy, he wanted to ensure this does not happen again. This, he said, will continue for rest of his life.

“I know I committed despicable acts,” he said, “I want to apologise to all I have caused suffering to.”

The Probation Service has assessed him as a “moderate risk of reoffending”.

Judge Melanie Greally said she needed to take some time to reflect and consider the material in greater depth.

Kieran Creaven will be sentenced by video link on Friday 3 December.