Paedophile walks free from Galway court

A convicted British paedophile walked free from a court in Galway this week having served two months and one week of a ten-month prison sentence imposed on him last February.

Registered Sex Offender, Sean Johnson (34), was successful at Galway Circuit Court in his appeal against the severity of the ten-month sentence which had been imposed on him on February 10, at Galway District Court for failing to register his details with Gardaí when he arrived in this jurisdiction last year.

Prosecuting Garda, Pat Fahy, told the District Court in February that Johnson had been running talent competitions and auditions for children as young as seven in Galway and Cork for months, keeping one step ahead of the law by using the aliases Alex Reid and Alex Quinn in both cities.

He was eventually tracked down in Cork on January 31, but fled to Tralee where he was arrested the following day.

Johnson, from Derbyshire in England, had not registered with Gardaí on his arrival in Galway last year, just days after he had been released from a UK prison,  having served three months of a four-month sentence imposed on him for the possession of child pornography.  As part of that sentence, the UK court had directed he never work with children again.

Garda Fahy told the court in January and the appeal hearing again yesterday that Johnson had been using the false names to evade detection and had rented a room at Westside Library 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.

All of the children had submitted their CVs to the accused, he said.

Johnson pleaded guilty before the District Court in February to living in this jurisdiction between November 13, 2013 and February 1, 2014, without notifying the Gardaí 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.

He told Judge Rory McCabe at the appeal hearing yesterday that he had feared for his life in the UK and all he wanted was a second chance to get on with his life in this country.

Judge McCabe said the fact that Johnson had served two months on remand last year before the DPP withdrew other charges against him, had not been taken into account when the ten-month sentence was imposed in February.

Hearing Johnson had served two months and one week of the ten-month sentence already, Judge McCabe reduced the ten-month sentence to that length of time, meaning the accused had now served the sentence and could walk free from the court.

No one was more surprised than Johnson at the Judge’s decision and he checked with prison officers and with his barrister before walking out of the court.

He was later spotted walking up Shop Street, dressed in cream coloured jeans, a cream bomber jacket and white shirt.