July 2017 Pervert sexually abused a four-year-old girl A Dublin paedophile, who admitted to gardai that he sexually abused a four-year-old girl has been jailed for just two years. Judge Gerald Keys ­imposed a four-year prison term with the final two years suspended on pervert Ciaran Colgan (56), of Gleann na hEorna, Springfield, Tallaght, at Ennis ­Circuit Court yesterday. Colgan, who also set up a fake Facebook profile to sexually exploit another underage girl, went to a Dublin garda station in 2010 to confess that he had sexually abused the four-year-old girl nine years earlier in Co Clare. Colgan made admissions to gardai that he had sexually abused the girl on three occasions between 2001 and 2003 in west Clare. Colgan identified the child by name and told officers that he didn’t wish to make a statement but if a complaint was ever made he would admit to everything. Colgan walked free from the station as there was no complaint against him. However, four years later he offended again when he posed as a 16-year-old boy on Facebook and sent sexually explicit messages to a 12-year-old girl. In March, Colgan received a four-year jail term at Cavan Circuit Court with the final two-and-a-half years suspended for the sexual exploitation of a child concerning the Facebook offence. Yesterday, Judge Keys said he couldn’t ignore that conviction. In relation to the offence before the Ennis court, Judge Keys told Colgan: “You abused your victim for your own sexual gratification and you abused your position of trust when babysitting.” In Colgan’s favour, the judge said he had no previous convictions at the time of the offence; had pleaded guilty; came forward voluntarily and admitted his criminal conduct. Judge Keys said Colgan had apologised for his wrongdoing and was prepared to engage with the Probation Service and undergo treatment under the sex offenders programme. Colgan, whose marriage ended in 1992, is the father of two grown-up children, aged 27 and 26. The case came to court after the victim went to a garda station last year to make formal complaints against Colgan. When interviewed by gardai, he confessed, telling officers: “I am sorry. I am very sorry.” Colgan abused the girl on three occasions when babysitting her. In her victim impact statement, the complainant said she had come forward and put “myself in this complicated and sensitive process mainly to ensure the protection of other children but also as closure for myself so that I continue to heal and better myself”. She added: “I was such a young girl in a vulnerable situation and I was used for pleasure by an adult I was expected to respect.” “At the age of five, I didn’t have the words to describe how I was feeling but now I do. “As a child, I felt different to the children around me. I remember feeling disgusted and ashamed of myself for what happened, which I see is a massive burden to carry.” She said that in the years after the abuse “I bottled up all my emotions and it took a toll on my mental health and I suffered low self-esteem and I went through a period of self-harming”. “My childhood innocence was taken from me and I was forced to grow up too fast with a warped version of the world. It wasn’t a world I wanted to live in,” she said. Judge Keys backdated the sentence to May 15 to when Colgan entered his guilty plea. March 2017 Man jailed for sending indecent Facebook messages to young Cavan girl A Dublin man has been imprisoned under the child trafficking and pornography act for sending indecent Facebook messages to a young Cavan girl. Ciaran Colgan from Tallaght in Dublin received a four year sentence with two and a half suspended at Cavan Circuit Criminal Court recently. This case was reported to Gardai after a family member became aware of Facebook messages she was exchanging, with who she believed was a 16 year old boy. After investigations by Gardai, it was discovered it was actually 55 year old Ciaran Colgan. He was arrested and admitted to sending the messages when questioned by Gardai, before being charged under Section 3 of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act — he had an address of John’s Lane Hostel, Dublin 8 at the time. He admitted to the inappropriate conversations with girls, who he thought were 15 or 16 years of age. The Court heard content from some of the messages exchanged between Mr Colgan and the young girl. These included him swearing he was 16 years of age. In sentencing, Judge Martin Nolan said this was a very serious offence and should be dealt with accordingly. He said Ciaran Colgan was a mature man and so a custodial sentence was unavoidable. He sentenced him to four years in prison, with the last two and a half years suspended. Judge Nolan also ordered him to engage with the Probation Service on his release and that he be added to the Sex Offenders Register, which he said was “a punishment in itself”.