Ex-OPW worker avoids jail over sexualised messages sent to officer posing as young girl

Tom Tuite

A Westmeath man who sent sexualised messages to an undercover PSNI operative posing as a 13-year-old girl has been handed a four-year suspended sentence.

Former Office of Public Works (OPW) employee Kevin Smyth (58) of Dublin Road, Castlepollard, had pleaded guilty at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court to charges under the 2017 Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act on dates in 2021.

Finalising the case, Judge Keenan Johnson said the accused had been motivated by an unhealthy preoccupation with deviant sexual acts and the offences involved a grooming type of activity.

A report from psychologist Dr Catherine Norton stated that Smyth was at a low risk of reoffending if he continued specialist counselling.

Smyth had also said he had been abused at a young age, and the perpetrator died before facing trial, which had an impact on him.

The first charge stated that on July 15th, he attempted to intentionally cause a child to look at an image of himself engaging in sexual activity, for sexual gratification, or corrupting a child.

He also admitted attempting to use information and communication technology applications, Skype and WhatsApp, to facilitate child sexual exploitation between June 29th and July 8th, and from July 8th until July 19th.

Smyth, who worked in river cleaning, also pleaded guilty to attempting to invite a child to sexual touching on June 30th.

His online pornography addiction escalated into an interest in child abuse material and led to Smyth seeking out what he believed was a 13-year-old girl.

The pre-sentence report expressed concern that the man minimised his behaviour because it did not occur "in real life."

The judge rejected that and held that Smyth was equally culpable because he had no idea that it was not a real child.

However, he noted there was no evidence of any prior crimes and that the offences occurred over a short period.

It emerged that Smyth suffered significant personal consequences since the offending came to light, including losing his OPW job, depression and isolation from his family.

A character reference stated that Smyth had previously been involved in sports and the Tidy Towns initiative.

The judge imposed concurrent four-year prison sentences on three charges, taking two further offences into consideration. The entire sentence was suspended for eight years, subject to strict conditions.

Smyth must remain under supervised probation for 18 months, complete the One in Four treatment programme within 24 months, and continue his one-to-one counselling sessions with Dr Norton.

The assessment report also said that there was no evidence of such attraction prior to the incident; this had changed as a result of the material he accessed.

He was also ordered to pay €15,000 to the Barnardos children's charity within six months.

In addition to the suspended terms, the judge asserted that the man will be subject to the restrictions of the Sex Offenders Register, which carries its own additional ignominy.

The psychologist also said Smyth must not have unsupervised access to prepubescent children.

The judge also heard that the accused had experienced suicidal ideation at the prospect of going into custody.

Detective Sergeant Eric Naughton of the Divisional Protective Service Unit in Athlone told Judge Keenan Johnson that the Police Service of Northern Ireland sent an intelligence pack to gardaí regarding a specific user on chatrooms and social media apps.

He initially used the username "Older Guy" when communicating with what he believed was a 13-year-old girl named Jess.

He began asking if "Jess" looked "hot" in her school uniform and, using graphic terms, if she had ever let a man touch her sexually.

Smyth questioned whether she had ever seen a man masturbating and asked for pictures of her and her mother. Other explicit messages referred to her body parts and requests, "Would you show me?"

The communication continued on Skype with a video call from Smyth showing him "on a tractor or some plant machinery attempting to masturbate".

More messages followed discussing urination for gratification, with more references to the mother. He received a non-sexualised picture and continued requesting images, while he gave instructions on masturbation.

He told "Jess" he had friends in Belfast and instructed her to save his number in her contacts under a girl's name.

The father of two used WhatsApp to send more similar messages.

After gardaí identified him, he claimed that he did not know it was a child. Later, he made full admissions. His devices were seized for analysis, which showed an element of being "cleansed of data".

Defence senior counsel John Shortt referred to case law that when addiction has been identified, the primary issue for the court is rehabilitation and preventing reoffending.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.