Former RTÉ Sport producer Kieran Creaven jailed for 10 years

Former RTÉ Sport producer Kieran Creaven jailed for 10 years

A former RTÉ Sport producer who filmed himself sexually abusing a young child in the Philippines seven years ago while other children were in the room has been jailed for ten years.

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

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

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

Gardaí said they are still trying to identify a number of children in Ireland who were in contact online with the convicted paedophile.

They have appealed to anyone who may have been a victim, may know a victim or who has any information to contact them.

Judge Melanie Greally said today it was important that those who sexually exploit children do so in the knowledge that if they are detected they face the greatest penalties.

She said Creaven had abused different victims by different offending and with different degrees of depravity over the three-year period the charges range.

She also said that despite belated efforts, the fate of the child he sexually abused in the Philippines is unknown and because she has not been rescued it is difficult to conceive she has any hope of a normal childhood, much less a bright future.

She was drawn from a particularly vulnerable group and taken from her normal environment the judge said.

The garda investigation into the child abuse activities of Kieran 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 in fact met by a group calling itself Predator Exposure and handed over to 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 UK police and the gardaí, the investigation was taken over by the Garda National Protective Services Bureau.

Creaven’s home was searched and gardaí also made inquiries with Facebook, SKYPE, PayPal and moneygram.

The names and email addresses Creaven had been using emerged from searches and admissions in UK.

The 59-year-old was arrested and questioned in October 2019.

Two videos of Kieran Creaven sexually abusing a child in the Philippines were found on a micro SD HD card taken from him in Leeds. One shows him abusing a girl aged between 10 and 12.

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.

Detective Garda Johann Doyle of the Online Child Exploitation Unit said she asked Creaven to tell her about the child in the video but the 59-year-old exercised his right to silence and his answer to all questions was no comment.

21 months later in July of this year, he invited gardaí to interview him again but the gardaí were unable to identify her.

Gardaí also discovered another video of Creaven talking to a young girl on a beach in Vietnam.

Obscene conversations with children were found on a HP device with Creaven talking to children in the Philippines as events unfold. In one, Creaven is giving instructions to an adult in a room with two children to abuse the children and paid €40.

In a similar conversation on 15 October 2017, Creaven told the adult he would send them dollars when his credit card didn’t work.

He was also caught with obscene images of a 7- and 12-year-old child on a USB key and with a video on his Samsung phone of an adult male abusing a two-year-old girl.

He used different Facebook accounts to chat with and groom children in Ireland, one was a 14-year-old boy, the other a 13-year-old girl.

He sent an abusive image to the boy and told a 16-year-old girl who was in care that he would like to meet her.

Kieran Creaven wrote a letter of apology for what he called his “abhorrent behaviour”. 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 because it had brought him back from a dark spiral he was going down into.

RTÉ said today that Kieran Creaven was dismissed with immediate effect following his guilty plea to charges made against him during legal proceedings in Leeds Crown Court on 18 December 2017. It also said RTÉ provided assistance to An Garda Síochána as requested during its investigation.

Gardaí are still trying to identify a number of children in Ireland who were in contact online with Creaven.

They said today that the jailing of Kieran Creaven shows there is “no safe haven” for child abusers.

Detective Superintendent Barry Walsh said the investigation into his activities was international and the Garda’s child protection unit worked with Interpol and authorities in the Philippines but got no useful information or help from Creaven.

The officer in charge of the Garda’s online child protection unit said if anyone thinks they or their children have been victims of Creaven online, they should contact the Garda National Protective Services Bureau.

He also said that a notable feature of this case is the fact the Creaven used mainstream social media platforms to sexually abuse children at home and abroad.

Judge Melanie Greally also said today she will impose post release supervision conditions on Kieran Creaven in two weeks.