A PENSIONER WHO was caught in a sting operation by an online group after he sent sexually explicit images and had sexualised conversations with what he believed were 11  to 12-year-old girls has been jailed for two years.

Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard that Patrick (Pat) Linehan previously of Comeragh Park, the Glen, Cork city initially described his interactions with what he thought were very young girls as “harmless fun.”

Det Garda Brendan Murray said that gardaí were called to the home of Linehan on 8 July 2023. The 70-year-old had been approached by members of organisation called Child Online Protection Enforcers.

Det Garda Murray said that individuals in the group had set up fake decoy profiles where they posed as children. Linehan went as far to try and arrange to meet up with what he thought was a twelve-year-old girl for a “kiss and a cuddle” and to “make love in the back seat of a car in the country”.

Det Garda Murray said that when gardaí arrived at the home of Linehan a member of the enforcers group handed them two USB storage devices. The devices contained sexualised conversations between the accused and adults pretending to be two girls  aged 11 and 12 years.

Det Garda Murray said that the accused acknowledged sending images and videos to one of the girls. However, he denied that the videos were obscene in nature. 

“He also stated that she had asked to meet with him a few times, but he had never met up with her.”

In the initial conversations with each of the profiles, Pat Linehan is informed he is communicating with children, and their ages are discussed on a number of occasions throughout the message threads.”

Linehan told the persons posing as young girls that he was 13 years old. But he subsequently sent images of a sexual nature of himself. He then admitted that he was in his sixties.

Det Garda Murray said that Linehan engaged in sexual conversations with both profile users and detailed in graphic detail the sexual acts he would like to perform on one of the girls.

“He asks if they would perform sexual acts on him, to which they reply, questioning if they’re allowed to do that, given their ages, Pat Linehan suggests nobody would know, that it would be a secret. 

“He sent images of his penis to both girls, and he sent videos of a sexual nature to the profile of the 11 year old girl. The message thread to both girls, began on the 19 June 2023 and continued for a number of weeks, concluding on 8 July 2023.”

Defence counsel Ronan Barnes, BL, said that his client had an exemplary work record. Linehan was employed for for Cork County Council for over thirty years. He added that Linehan co-operated with gardaí and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

Judge Helen Boyle said that Linehan had engaged with adults who were “masquerading as children” telling them he was 13 years old before eventually stating he was 64 years old. In fact he was several years older than that.

Judge Boyle said that Linehan had gone as far as to try to arrange to meet what he thought was a twelve year old girl. She described his culpability as “high” and said that although no injured parties exist in the case the offences committed by the accused related to “intent.”

In mitigation Judge Boyle noted that Linehan was without previous convictions and had voluntarily returned from his new home in South Africa to face the case. She also acknowledged that the guilty plea had saved the State the cost of a trial. 

Judge Boyle jailed Linehan for 3.5 years. She suspended the final 18 months of the sentence with the condition that he return to South Africa within two weeks of finishing his prison sentence.