A former HSE manager who fantasised with other users of the Kik messaging service about raping children and making them cry was sentenced to six years in prison today (Monday) by a Circuit Court Judge in Castlebar.
Peter O’Malley (47), with an address at Hawthorn Place, Ballinrobe, appeared before Judge Eoin Garavan at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court for sentencing.
Mr O’Malley, who set up Covid clinics in Mayo and Roscommon at the height of the pandemic, pleaded guilty at an earlier court to ten sample charges of distributing and possessing child pornography.
Some of the pictures were described by Detective Garda Paula Griffin of the Mayo Divisional Protective Servíces Unit as images of “extreme depravity.”
The offences were committed over a period of 22 months, between January 2020 and October 2021.
The earlier court was told O’Malley knowingly engaged in five online conversations with children under the age of 18 from Cork and Kilkenny.
His personal phone contained almost 129,000 images of which approximately 70% was of pornographic nature, legal and illegal. The phone held almost 250 images of child pornographic material, including 62 images of category 1 and 44 images of a category 2 content.
At today’s hearing, Judge Garavan said Peter O’Malley was the administrator/facilitator of the Kik site and noted the quality, the explicit and depraved nature of the photos over the 22 month period.
He said the accused had shown an ongoing obsession with pornography and exploitation in a significant way.
Judge Garavan added that as administrator of the Kik app from September 2020 the accused decided who could come into the group.
It wasn’t cash, the Judge remarked, it wasn’t commercial The provision of photos created a market or certainly an incentive for additional material being procured which in the whole scheme of things caused children all over the world to be abused and photographed.
Describing the images as highly graphic, Judge Garavan said some of the victims had been screaming and crying.
The judge added that ultimately the accused was a member of a type of paedophile ring – not by perpetrating sexual assaults – but by the sharing and distribution of children being sexually abused “in a way that amounts to torture”.
O’Malley was suspended from the HSE in February 2022 after he was arrested by Gardai following a tip off from FBI investigators regarding his activity on the Kik social media app.
Imposing a six-year prison sentence today, Judge Garvan ordered counseling and post release supervision of three years under the Probation Service.
He also stipulated that post release O’Malley must get the prior approval of Gardai or the Probation Service in respect of owning, using or accessing smartphones or other digital devices.
He also must permit the gardai to inspect any such devices.
The prison sentence was backdated to October 21 last when O’Malley was first placed in custody by Judge Garavan.
