Producer who tried to groom underage girl is sacked by RTÉ

An RTÉ producer who travelled to England to meet someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl for sexual purposes has been fired by the broadcaster.

Kieran Creaven (55) from Dublin pleaded guilty on Monday to a charge of attempting to meet a girl under the age of 16 following grooming.

This morning, an RTÉ spokesman confirmed the sports producer has been sacked.

"RTÉ can confirm that, as a result of Monday's legal proceedings in Leeds Crown Court at which Kieran Creaven pleaded guilty to charges made against him, Kieran Creaven has been dismissed from RTÉ with immediate effect."

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During a 10-minute hearing at Leeds Crown Court on Monday, Creaven also pleaded guilty to a second charge of attempting to cause or incite a girl aged between 13 and 15 to engage in non-penetrative sexual activity.

The two charges relate to a period of time between July 1st and November 18th 2017.

Creaven was given bail by Judge Recorder of Leeds Peter Collier QC on the conditions he had no unsupervised access with children under the age of 16 and must surrender all internet-enabled devices if requested to do so by police.

Facebook messages

At a previous hearing at Leeds Magistrates Court last month, prosecutor Jill Seddon said Creaven planned on two occasions to fly over from Dublin to meet the fictitious girl he had groomed through Facebook messages.

The Facebook account he was interacting with did not belong to a teenage girl and was instead set up by the group “Predator Exposure”, who confronted Creaven outside the Queens Hotel in Leeds on November 18th, where he was expecting to meet the “girl”, the Magistrate’s court heard.

The online conversation was described as “prolonged” by the prosecution and began in July 2017 ending in November 2017.

The ‘girl’ repeatedly told the defendant she was 13. He sent her a picture of his penis over Facebook messages and the girl told him she had never seen one before.

The defendant also told the girl he wanted to “kiss and cuddle” her. Creaven told police he fully accepted messaging the girl but said he didn’t mean it in a sexual way.

He had originally arranged to meet the girl in October 2017 but cancelled after he became ill, the earlier hearing was told.

He will be sentenced on February 12th.