Man lured by ‘paedophile hunters’ has sentence adjourned for rehabilitation

A 45-year-old man, who was caught by vigilante paedophile hunters after they posed as a 14-year-old girl and arranged to meet him, has had his sentence adjourned to allow him to complete a course aimed at rehabilitating sex offenders.

Tim Bowen with an address at Cottage View, Monkstown, Cork was back before Cork Circuit Criminal Court for sentence on Thursday after he had earlier entered signed guilty pleas to two charges arising from the sting by the group of paedophile hunters over three years ago.

Bowen had earlier pleaded guilty to attempting to communicate with a child by way of communication technology for the purpose of facilitating the sexual exploitation of that child on dates between July 4th and July 26th, 2019.

Bowen also pleaded guilty to a second charge that he did attempt to intentionally meet the child at Costa Coffee in Bishopstown in Cork on July 26th, 2019, to for the purpose of doing something that constituted sexual exploitation of the child, namely sexual assault.

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At Cork Circuit Criminal Court, defence barrister, Sinead Behan BL told Judge Helen Boyle that that Clinical Psychologist Dr Nicholas Banks had met Bowe and recommended that he should complete the 26-week-long Safer Lives programme aimed at assisting sex offenders.

Ms Behan said there were also two separate reports from the Probation Service that found it would be beneficial for Bowen to complete the course.

Prosecution barrister, Dermot Sheehan BL said the state was of the view that it would be better if Bowen were to complete the course before sentencing.

Judge Boyle agreed and she adjourned sentencing until February 15th to allow Bowen engage with the programme. She also ordered an updated report from Dr Banks to assist the court in deciding what penalty to impose.

At an earlier hearing, the court heard Bowen was online with a person he thought was a child but was in fact a member of “a paedophile hunting vigilante group” and he arranged to meet the child but there was no actual person, and he was instead met by the group who called gardaí.

Ms Behan BL said Mr Bowen had lost his job as a result of publicity about the case when he was first charged while his marriage had also broken down. While he was now in a relationship with a new partner for whom he was also a carer, the matter had caused him huge distress and led to him attempting suicide.

At that earlier hearing, Ms Behan said that while she did not have any reports to present to the court, her client had informed her that he suffered from Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) while he had also been diagnosed as bipolar disorder while a teenager growing up in the UK.

She said that her client had engaged in sexual activity with a number of people that he met online but none of these were minors, and he was not in contact with any children and had complied fully with the conditions of his bail since he was first charged.