Former Childline boss faces further fraud charges

Former children’s charity boss Cian O’Tighearnaigh has appeared in court today accused of a further 41 offences of fraud.

The 42-year-old ex-ISPCC chief executive pleaded not guilty when the charges were put to him by a member of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation prior to the Dublin District Court hearing.

Mr O’Tighearnaigh was first charged with one count of fraud last month.

The further charges date back to December 1998 and centre on the accusation he deprived the charity’s collectors of their due amount by underestimating the total in the collection buckets.

The charges put to the accused yesterday include the falsification of accounts, acquiring money under false pretences and failing to keep books and records.

The court heard that when the charges were put to him by Garda Francis McGroder, of the GBFI, Mr O’Tighearnaigh replied 'not guilty' to each and all 41 of them.

At the earlier court hearing last month, the accused’s solicitor, Liam Guider, said his client would strenuously defend the first charge, which was that, under the Companies Act, he carried on business at the ISPCC’s Dublin headquarters for fraudulent purposes.

Mr O’Tighearnaigh, the charity’s most senior executive for 12 years up to his resignation more than two years ago and the founder of Childline, said nothing during the court appearance.

His solicitor asked for bail to be continued on the same conditions and there were no objections from the prosecution.

Mr O’Tighearnaigh was remanded until February 5 to appear again before the district court.

It is expected he will return for trial on that date but may yet have his case heard before a jury at the circuit court. If convicted in the district court, he faces a maximum of six months behind bars but two years if found guilty in the circuit court.

No details of the amounts involved have been revealed and are not detailed on the individual charges.