A court has heard how a man in Galway posed as a talent agent in order to lure two children to a hotel room where he had them lie on a bed and took photos of them.
38-year-old Brendan Clifford had the nine year old girl and her six year old brother come to a hotel room at the Imperial Hotel, Eyre Square on 27 February 2022, RTÉ reports.
The father of three previously had an address at St Catherine’s Close, Carman Hall, Dublin 8.
Galway Circuit Court heard how the children’s mother had decided to look up talent agents as the boy and girl were interested in singing and dancing.
This led her to come across the profile of a man who identified himself as “Jim” who was in reality Clifford and claimed to be associated with a genuine agency.
The woman told the court that she had checked the website of the agency and was satisfied it was genuine.
Clifford told the woman to prepare three outfits for the children for them to change into and to bring them to the hotel whereupon he told her that she could not be present claiming “children do not perform well when their parents are present”.
The woman said that after initially agreeing to this she became uncomfortable after a few minutes and approached staff at the hotel who advised her that there were no auditions taking place at the hotel and no guests called Jim.
When the children were recovered from the hotel room they had their shoes off and appeared to be upset. Gardaí were called and Clifford arrested.
Clifford pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of children contrary to section 3 of the Criminal Law Sexual Offences Act 2017.
These offences took place a short time after he was released from prison after serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for sexual exploitation and sexual assault.
This arose in relation to Clifford also having posed as a child talent agent in Tallaght Hospital.
After he was released from jail in 2021, the Sunday World reported details of Clifford having “molested two young kids in a hospital toilet,” these offences were reported to have taken place in February 2015.
The Irish Independent reported the background of this case saying that Clifford had posed as “David White” and through a figure who went by “Ciara Murphy” had convinced the children’s mother that they needed treatment for issues with the tendons and requested that they be allowed to have cream rubbed into their legs.
The children’s mother consented to this. She later became suspicious after an email from “Ciara Murphy” said that her daughter’s underwear would need to be removed during the ‘treatment’.
The children were also brought by “David” to Tallaght Hospital for this purpose where on one occasion Clifford had brought the 9-year-old boy into a disabled access toilet and rubbed cream on his legs, bottom, and penis.
The boy’s sister who was ten was also brought to Tallaght Hospital but said that she did not wish to go back again after an incident on the 23rd of February, the Independent reported.
Sentencing Judge Mr. Justice Brian O’Callaghan described Clifford’s actions in Galway as “most disturbing” saying that the incident in the hotel room had been “well planned” out.
Clifford, who the court heard is engaging with rehabilitation services, was sentenced to four years in prison with the final year suspended with Judge O’Callaghan saying “the court has no doubt this man has a clear intent of rehabilitation,”.