A garda sergeant who paid a prostitute £100 to find him a girl aged between seven and 10 to have sex with has been remanded in custody for sentence for soliciting and child Internet pornographic offences.
Kieran O'Halloran picked up the 21-year-old woman on Blackhall Place, Dublin, and when they went to a flat on James's Street he said he was looking for a young girl. He told her he didn't see it as sexual abuse because he was willing to pay for the service.
She took down his mobile telephone number and said she would meet him on the south side of the city but instead, she contacted the gardaí.
Once O'Halloran was identified, gardaí obtained a search warrant for his home at Five Oakes in Drogheda, where they seized two computers.
Pornographic material was recovered from one of the computers, showing a number of pictures of children engaged in naked poses and sexual activity.
A newer computer model had a number of images deleted, but the gardaí were able to access a number of child pornography websites that had previously been visited by O'Halloran.
O'Halloran (41), a married father of one, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to soliciting a woman to procure a child for the purpose of her sexual exploitation on December 6th, 2001, and to the possession of child pornography on December 8th, 2001.
Judge Frank O'Donnell said he needed time to consider every aspect of the case and remanded O'Halloran for sentence on February 7th.
Det Insp John McMahon told Mr Brendan Grehan, prosecuting, that the prostitute rang the Bridewell and gave them O'Halloran's mobile number.
O'Halloran answered when the phone was dialled and the call was quickly terminated. Gardaí were able to track him down because of phone records, the registration of his car, which the woman took down and CCTV footage of him withdrawing cash at an ATM on James's Street, to pay for the child.
Det Insp McMahon said the woman made a detailed statement of her dealings with O'Halloran and outlined that he paid her £100, even though her fee was only £80 and they did not engage in any sexual activity.
When the gardaí called to his home, he said he had been expecting them but asked that the search be delayed so his family could leave. Gardaí seized the two computers, some credit card documentation and his mobile phone, which he had thrown in his wheelie bin out the back.
They located a program on the newer computer called "evidence eliminator", which had been installed a number of months before. They also discovered that the computer had been cleansed the morning after his encounter with the prostitute.
O'Halloran took full responsibility for all materials found on the computers but denied throughout that he had solicited the woman to find him a child.
Det Insp McMahon agreed with Mr Michael O'Higgins SC, that O'Halloran had been a competent member of the Garda and was well respected. He had held a command post for 12 months in Croatia while working for the United Nations.
He was suspended from the Garda after his arrest and resigned before his guilty pleas last November. His marriage was deteriorating before his arrest but this was the last straw. He now lived away from the family home.
Dr Patrick Walsh, the director of the Granada Institute, said he had been treating O'Halloran for the past year. He had received more than 200 hours of therapy and his progress was good. There was a low risk that he might offend again.
He said O'Halloran was the victim of a brutal rape in his early teens and this was consistent with sexual tendencies he now showed. He had a serious drink problem.
Mr O'Higgins submitted that imposing a jail sentence would seriously disrupt the treatment O'Halloran had already received. Out of 300 sex offenders in prison,there was only space for 20 of them to receive counselling and treatment.