Adrian O’Reilly, a 49-year-old man who flew from Dublin to London believing he had arranged to meet and sexually abuse a six-year-old girl, has been jailed for almost seven years.
O’Reilly was, in fact, communicating with a police officer, and he was arrested by Met police officers at the rendezvous point in Stratford.
Metropolitan police said the Dublin man came to their attention in January 2023 when he exchanged messages with a police officer posing as someone offering access to a child so that they could be sexually abused.
O’Relly sent messages discussing his wish to arrange to meet and abuse a young girl, police said.
On 29 March last year, O’Reilly flew to London and then travelled to Stratford where he believed he would meet his contact and then travel on to meet the child.
When he was arrested, officers found him possession of items including Viagra and condoms.
Detective Constable Ed Hickford, who led the team working on the case, said of : “Our pursuit of those who engage in illegal sexual activity with children is relentless and we will use a range of tactics to identify and arrest those responsible”.
“In this case, O’Reilly thought he was communicating with a person who was offering access to a young girl,” he said.
“His messages were vile and he endorsed these by getting on a plane and flying to London with the intention to carry out this abuse.”
“However, he was greeted by my team who arrested him and compiled a wealth of evidence which left him with no choice but to plead guilty.”
O’Reilly was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown to six years and nine months’ imprisonment yesterday after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to arranging/facilitating the commission of a child offence.