Sex offender treatment assessment for former RTE producer

By Isabel Hayes and Declan Brennan

A judge has ordered that a former RTÉ producer who sexually abused young children both here and abroad must be assessed for a sex offender’s treatment programme after his release from prison.

Last week Judge Melanie Greally sentenced 59-year-old Kieran Creaven of Adelaide Street, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin to prison sentences totalling ten years.

Creavan had pleaded guilty to four counts of child exploitation, two counts of sexually assaulting a child and four counts of child pornography. The offences took place in Ireland, the UK and the Philippines in 2014 and 2017.

The case was listed again yesterday afternoon at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in order to clarify any post release supervision requirements.

Judge Greally set a supervision period of three years post release during which time Creaven must attend all appointments as directed by a Probation Service officer and advice the Probation Service of his address and of any changes to his address.

She ordered that he must engage with offence focused work with the Probation Service and make himself available for assessment for a sex offender’s treatment programme

Judge Greally warned Creaven, who appeared in court via video-link from custody, that failure to comply with the conditions imposed under the sex offender’s act were offences in their own right.

At a hearing last week Judge Greally said that Creaven engaged in behaviour that was “degrading in the extreme” for his vulnerable child victims, who were in some cases being abused for commercial gain.

She noted that one child in particular, who was sexually abused by Creaven in the Philippines, has never been found and her fate remains unknown.

“As she has not been rescued, it is difficult to conceive she has any hope of a normal childhood, much less a bright future,” she said.

Creaven, a sports programming producer, was arrested in Leeds in 2017 as a result of a sting operation by a vigilante group when he tried to meet a child for sexual activity.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment in the UK.

Last year gardaí charged him with a number of offences relating to child exploitation, sexual assault, and possession of child abuse material. He has been in custody since.

Judge Greally said his offending involved “different victims, different types of offences and different degrees of depravity”.

She noted Creaven travelled to the Philippines in order to engage in child sexual abuse. He then engaged in the “extreme abuse” of a girl aged between 10 and 12, which he recorded and stored for three years.

In mitigation she noted that Creaven has expressed remorse and has engaged with the Probation Services for the last two years.

He has undergone psychotherapy and maintains committed to rehabilitation, she said.

She noted he had lost his job and future employment prospects as well as his marriage.

He will be on the sex offender register for life.

In his letter to the court, Creaven said he wanted to offer his sincere apologies to those he hurt, particularly the girl in the Philippines for his “abhorrent behaviour”.

“I know I have committed despicable acts,” he wrote.

Creaven said he was glad he was arrested in 2017. “It pulled me back from the dark and disturbing spiral that my mind had entered and which was slowly taking over my life,” he said.

He had lost touch with his “moral compass”, he said.

“I’m responsible for my acts and I accept I must pay for my crimes,” he wrote.