A former Kerry badminton champion is to be sentenced on Monday for crimes including paying for access to children for sexual exploitation, and child sex abuse.
Judge Elva Duffy heard evidence against 35-year-old Timmy Duggan, of Mountain Lodge, Annagh, Tralee, at Tralee Circuit Court today.
Mr Duggan has pleaded guilty to 22 counts, including sexual exploitation of children, and sexual abuse of children, relating to offences between 2015 and 2021.
Mr Duggan also pleaded guilty to paying mothers for access to children for sexual gratification, and paying for child pornography images.
One of the women who took photos of her children and sent them to Mr Duggan for money, will also be sentenced on Monday.
The court heard that Mr Duggan first came to the attention of gardaí in April 2016, after a man made a complaint that his ten and eleven-year-old daughters had received inappropriate messages from a man on social media app Snapchat.
Mr Duggan came voluntarily to the station, where he handed over his phone and laptop, and upon examining these, gardaí found two unrelated images of naked young girls, and the messages to the ten and eleven-year-old girls.
Garda Mary McGinty gave evidence that in a separate matter, Mr Duggan pleaded guilty to encouraging the production and distribution of child pornography on dates between 2015 and 2016.
These charges related to Mr Duggan engaging in very sexually graphic conversations with a woman in which she agreed to take a naked photo of her three-year-old son and send them to Mr Duggan for money.
Mr Duggan pleaded guilty to encouraging the images to be produced and distributed by the mother, and receiving the images of the naked child, and two other images of child pornography which the mother downloaded from the internet and sent to Mr Duggan.
The woman in this matter has pleaded not guilty to the charges against her, and will face trial at a later date.
When Mr Duggan was interviewed about this, he mistakenly thought gardaí were discussing a different mother and a different child, leading to a further garda investigation.
On foot of this investigation, Mr Duggan admitted to paying a separate woman, a co-accused in the case who cannot be named to protect the identity of the children, on 19 occasions for naked photos and videos of her six-year-old and nine-year-old daughters between 2018 and 2019.
The court heard that Mr Duggan and the co-accused had originally engaged in a casual sexual relationship, which Mr Duggan paid for, before he asked for photos of her children.
Gardaí executed a search of the co-accused’s house in August 2019, after which she made a full admission to taking naked photos of her children and sending them to Mr Duggan via Snapchat for money.
She faces seven charges, and will also be sentenced on Monday.
Mr Duggan made 19 payments to the co-accused ranging from €50 to €300, totalling €3,350, for images and videos that were pre-arranged at Mr Duggan’s request.
In another separate book of evidence, Mr Duggan pleaded guilty to nine charges, including sexual assaults of a child, paying money for access to a child for sexual exploitation, and sexual activity in the presence of a child.
This related to Mr Duggan paying a woman living in Tralee €400 for access to her child between 2019 and 2021, who was between five and seven years of age at the time.
Mr Duggan watched the child wash themselves naked, while he washed the child himself on a separate occasion, and engaged in a sexual act with the child’s mother while the child washed themselves.
Mr Duggan paid another woman, who was a friend of this family, €400 for access to the same child.
The 22 charges against Mr Duggan each individually carry maximum sentences of between five and life in prison.
Defending Mr Duggan, Barrister Mark Nicholas instructed by Padraig O’Connell solicitors said Mr Duggan had cooperated fully with gardaí, and made full admissions to the offences.
Seven charges facing Mr Duggan’s co-accused carry maximum sentences of between ten years and life in prison.
