Teacher caught in sexualised online chats with teen girls is jailed
Declan Brennan
A school teacher who had highly sexualised conversations online with teenage girls has been jailed for two and a half years.
Dublin man Niall Ganley (33) was caught as a result of a sting operation by a UK-based vigilante group set up to stop sexual grooming of children online.
Garda Lisa Finn told Jennifer Jackson BL, prosecuting, that in July 2023, a woman from this group met with UK police to report sexualised conversations between an Irish male and a fake profile for a child set up on a teen's social media website Chat Avenue.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Ganley had initiated contact with the profile identifying as a nine year old girl saying “heya cutie, horny 27 year old teacher here from Ireland”.
The profile, with the pseudonym Isabella, replied “I'm not old enough, it sucks being nine years old”. Ganley then asked her if she had had any sexual thoughts and told her he would love to kiss her.
He asked her to record her voice which the court heard was him trying to confirm the profile was a real child. The fake profile told him she was afraid to do this in case her mother would shout at her.
Ganley went on to write that he had a car and could fit a mattress into it and he would take her on adventures. He sent her a nude photo of himself with an emoji covering his privates.
He told her how sexual intercourse works and sent her instructions on female masturbation before sending a video of himself masturbating.
He later told the profile “I could bring you to the beach and we could stay at a hotel overnight. I'm sure your mum would trust a teacher”. He also sent her a link to online porn and told her he would like to see her in her underwear.
He asked her to send him photos and when she said she wouldn't he said he had to stop communicating with her.
Gardaí identified Ganley and located him at this then home at Grange Rd, Rathfarnham, Dublin. A search warrant was executed on August 11th 2023 and six digital devices seized.
Analysis of these revealed 20 images and two videos of child sex abuse as well as records of online conversations with three different minors using the Skype app.
Between February and April 2016 he had highly sexualised conversations and exchanged explicit images with a 16 year old girl. During this time he also contacted a girl who told him she was 13 and the conversation was of a sexual nature.
For two weeks in February 2016 Ganley also had sexualised conversations with another teenage girl.
The court heard investigators also found two “up-skirting” videos of teenage girls made by Ganley.
Ganley pleaded guilty to inducing a child to participate in sexual activity, production of child sexual abuse material for distribution, possession of child abuse material, and communication with a child for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
Gareth Baker SC, defending, that his client grew up in Westmeath and his family were horrified by his actions.
He said Ganley has engaged fully with the charity One in Four and a report from them states that he has demonstrated insight into his offending and expressed genuine remorse.
Counsel said Ganley sees now that his behaviour had become compulsive and is ashamed of it now.
Mr Baker said that a precursor to this behaviour was the fact that as a teenager Ganley became addicted to pornography. He said his client states that he is actively working on “never going down that road again”, counsel said.
Judge Martin Nolan set a starting sentence of five years but reduced it by half to take into consideration the mitigating factors which include the pleas of guilty, the co-operation, the lack of any previous convictions, the remorse and the steps taken to rehabilitate.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.
