Actor jailed for sex with schoolboy

An actor and an ex-courier who had sex with a 14-year-old boy after they first met him through a gay website have been jailed for two years by Judge Martin Nolan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

'Fair City' actor Patrick Dunleavy (aged 42) with an address at Sherrard Street Lower, Dublin 1, pleaded guilty to engaging in a sexual act with the boy in January 2007, while Thomas Rogers (aged 45), of St Catherine’s Avenue, Rush, pleaded guilty to two charges of engaging in a sexual act with him in January and February 2007.

Neither man had previous convictions. Judge Nolan ordered that they both be registered as sex offenders.

The boy had created a profile on www.gaydar.ie stating he was 19 years old but both men later acknowledged in garda interviews that the teenager admitted on meeting them that he was only 15 years old, he was in fact a couple of weeks away from his 15th birthday. Each accused agreed that they were aware that the age of consent was 17.

Garda Darra Hynes told prosecuting counsel Ms Anne Rowland BL, that the boy had arranged to meet up with both men after exchanging phone numbers through the website.

He also met up with two other men but the boy admitted that nothing happened with them because they had said on seeing him that it was obvious he was underage and one commented: "I don’t want to go to jail".

Gda Hynes told Ms Rowland that the teenager’s mother contacted gardaí after she found suggestive text messages from these men and nude photographs of her son on his phone.

Her partner texted Rogers, having found the number on the boy’s phone, and arranged to meet him after purporting to be another young man. The man followed Rogers after he texted to say he would not make the appointment and later supplied his address and registration of his car to the gardaí.

Judge Nolan said that neither Dunleavy nor Rogers "groomed this young man or enticed him to meet them" and accepted that it was "undisputed" that the boy had "for his own reasons" contacted the site himself.

"Unfortunately temptation was put in their way and they gave into it and by doing so committed a very serious crime," Judge Nolan said before he added that he must impose a custodial sentence after he was advised by Ms Rowland that the maximum penalty was five years in prison.

He said he had taken into account their remorse, co-operation with the gardaí and the fact that they will both be greatly affected by their crimes.

Mr Pieter Le Vert BL, defending Dunleavy, told Judge Nolan that this was not a case in which the young boy had been groomed nor was "there a withdrawal of consent throughout the incidents".

He said his client, who had appeared in 'Fair City', television adverts and on stage, had showed great remorse for his actions.