Convicted paedophile jailed after filming kids

A convicted British paedophile was running talent competitions for children as young as seven in Galway and Cork for over a year before being tracked down by two Galway Gardai and arrested in Kerry last month.

Registered Sex Offender, Sean Johnson (33), from Derbyshire, had been using false names to evade detection and was renting rooms in both cities to hold bogus video auditions for children, some as young as seven, promising their parents and agents that they would be cast in children’s TV series.

Johnson appeared in custody before Galway District Court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to living in this jurisdiction between November 13, 2013 and February 1, 2014, without notifying the Gardai of his name or names used by him, his home address and his date of birth, as required because he is a registered sex offender, contrary to Section 12(1), (a) and (3) of the Sex Offenders Act 2001, as amended by Section 13 of the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008.

Garda Pat Fahy told the court that he and Det. Sgt. Adrian O’Neill became aware on January 31, last year that Johnson was renting a room in a public library in Westside under the name of Alex Quinn for the purpose of auditioning children for a bogus TV series.

Johnson was staying in a local hostel where a member of staff became suspicious of him and rang the Gardai.

Gardai contacted the British police and they confirmed Johnson was a registered sex offender having being convicted in 2009 for possessing child pornography.
He received a four-month prison sentence at the time and was disqualified from working with children indefinitely.

Both Gardai went to the rented room in the library on February 1, 2014 and found a number of children, some as young as seven, being videoed by the accused as part of an audition for a bogus TV series. He had employed a photographer to take pictures of the children at both auditions. Johnson was arrested at the time and admitted he should not have been working with children.

He was brought before Galway District Court on February 1 last year and spent two months in custody before the DPP directed the Gardai to withdraw the above charge.
Johnson was released and immediately went to Cork where he started to audition more children for a bogus talent competition using the name Alexander Reid.

The Galway Gardai travelled to Cork on January 27 last looking for Johnson and caught up with him in a Tralee hostel two days later.

Judge Mary Fahy said it was very foolish of parents to put their very young children forward for auditions without checking out Johnson’s credentials first.
Imposing a 10-month sentence on Johnson for failing to notify Gardai he was in this jurisdiction, Judge Fahy said the message had to go out to “like-minded” individuals,whom, she said, networked and knew each other well, that such an offence carried a severe penalty in this country.Bridge work to spark traffic disruption for two months.