Former HSE executive jailed for 6 years for sharing images of child sexual abuse – The Irish Times

A former HSE executive who, along with other users of the Kik messaging service, fantasized about raping children and making them cry was sentenced to six years in prison by a Circuit Court Judge on Monday.

Peter O’Malley (47), with an address at Hawthorn Place in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, appeared before Judge Eoin Garavan at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court for sentencing.

O’Malley, who set up Covid clinics in Mayo and Roscommon at the height of the outbreak, pleaded guilty to ten sample charges of distributing and possessing child pornography at an earlier court hearing.

Some of the images were described by Det Gda Paula Griffin, of Mayo County Protective Services Unit, as images of “extreme depravity”.

The offenses were committed over a 22-month period between January 2020 and October 2021.

O’Malley, the administrator of online messaging site Kik, asked a user if he could have sex with his 12-year-old daughter.

In another incident, he explained how a user he was chatting with wanted to harass his 2-year-old baby.

The earlier court was told O’Malley knowingly had five online conversations with children under 18 from Co Cork and Co Kilkenny.

His personal phone contained 128,791 images, approximately 70 percent of which were pornographic, legal and illegal. The phone contained 249 child pornographic materials, including 62 category 1 content and 44 category 2 content.

Category 1 images included content where children between the ages of 3 and 17 engaged in or witnessed sexually explicit activity, including children being sexually abused by adults.

The images in Category 2 included content in which children’s genitals were exposed and they were posed in sexually explicit poses.

At today’s hearing, Judge Garavan said O’Malley was the administrator/facilitator of the Kik site and noted the explicit and indecent nature of the photos from a 22-month period.

He said the defendant significantly demonstrated an ongoing obsession with pornography and exploitation.

Judge Garavan added that from September 2020, as the administrator of the Kik app, the defendant decided who could enter the group.

The judge stated that this was not cash, it was not commercial. The provision of photographs created a market, or certainly an incentive, for the supply of additional materials; This has led to children being abused and photographed in general all over the world.

Describing the images as extremely sensational, Judge Garavan said that some of the victims were screaming and crying.

He continued: “I haven’t seen the photos but I accept the descriptions, anyone would be heartbroken to see these children so upset or disturbed by being penetrated or being the victim of any other sexual activity.”

Ultimately, the judge added, the defendant became a member of a kind of pedophile ring, not by committing sexual assaults, but by sharing and distributing children who were sexually abused “in a way that amounted to torture.”

O’Malley was suspended from the HSE in February 2022 after he was arrested by gardaí following a tip from FBI investigators regarding his activities on the Kik social media app.

Judge Garvan, who sentenced him to six years in prison today, ordered counseling and post-release supervision for three years as part of the probation service.

It also stipulated that O’Malley must obtain prior approval from gardaí or the Probation Service to possess, use or access a smartphone or other digital device after release.

It must also allow gardaí to inspect such devices.

The prison sentence was backdated to October 21, when O’Malley was first taken into custody by Judge Garavan.