An RTÉ producer has pleaded guilty to sex offences after he travelled to England to meet what he thought was a 13-year-old girl.
Kieran Creaven (55) from Dublin pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to meet a girl under the age of 16 years of age following grooming.
During a 10-minute hearing at Leeds Crown Court on Monday, Creaven also pleaded guilty to a second charge of attempting to cause or incite a girl aged between 13 and 15 to engage in non-penetrative sexual activity.
The two charges relate to a period of time between July 1st and November 18th 2017, when Creaven travelled to Leeds with the intention of committing the crimes in a city centre hotel.
Creaven, a sports producer for RTÉ television, appeared in court wearing a white shirt and black trousers. He spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and to enter guilty pleas to the charges. He had no previous convictions.
Creaven was given bail by Judge Recorder of Leeds Peter Collier QC on the conditions he had no unsupervised access with children under the age of 16 and must surrender all internet enabled devices if requested to do so by police.
He will be sentenced on February 12th.
At a previous hearing at Leeds Magistrates Court last month, prosecutor Jill Seddon said Creaven planned on two occasions to fly over from Dublin to meet the fictitious girl he had groomed through Facebook messages.
The account was instead fake and was set up by the Facebook Group ‘Predator Exposure’, who confronted him outside the Queens Hotel in Leeds on November 18th, where he was expecting to meet the “girl”, the Magistrate’s court heard.
The online conversation was described as “prolonged” by the prosecution and began in July 2017 ending in November 2017. The girl repeatedly told the defendant she was 13. He sent her a picture of his penis over Facebook messages and the girl told him she had never seen one before. The defendant also told the girl he wanted to “kiss and cuddle” her. Creaven told police he fully accepted messaging the girl but said he didn’t mean it in a sexual way.
He had originally arranged to meet the girl in October 2017 but cancelled after he became ill, the earlier hearing was told.