{"id":419253,"date":"2026-04-27T01:44:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T01:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/419253\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T01:44:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T01:44:30","slug":"former-td-jim-glennon-confirms-he-wrote-character-reference-for-convicted-child-abuser-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/419253\/","title":{"rendered":"Former TD Jim Glennon confirms he wrote character reference for convicted child abuser \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> TD Jim Glennon has confirmed he was the politician who offered a character reference for Daniel Ramamoorthy, who was convicted of sexually exploiting a child. <\/p>\n

Glennon has formally apologised for writing the reference, which he said was \u201cnaive\u201d and \u201cwrong\u201d. He confirmed he will also be \u201cresigning from any and all employment, consultancies, and directorships that I currently hold\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ramamoorthy, a one-time government department adviser, was found guilty last year of sexually exploiting a teenage boy<\/a> he met while volunteering as a Christian children\u2019s camp guide. Ramamoorthy, with an address at Whitebarn Road, Rathfarnham, and also in Germany, had also been due to stand trial on a charge of possessing child sexual abuse material, known in law as child pornography. He pleaded guilty to this charge before the trial started. <\/p>\n

An appeal against the severity of his sentence was rejected at the Court of Appeal<\/a> earlier this month. It was during the appeal hearing that Judge John Edwards noted that not a \u201csingle one\u201d of those who provided a character reference for Ramamoorthy mentioned the 13-year-old victim or the \u201cvile nature\u201d of the crime, and said that one of those who had submitted character references was a TD.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Sunday Glennon, who served as a Fianna F\u00e1il TD in the Dublin North constituency from 2002 to 2007, confirmed that he had offered a character reference for Ramamoorthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI confirm that I am the former TD who submitted a character reference for the convicted Daniel Ramamoorthy, as referred to by the judge in the court of criminal appeal earlier this week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crimes committed by Mr Ramamoorthy were vile and of the most egregious nature. I offer my unreserved apology to the victim and to their family. Writing the letter was an error of judgment. I recognise that my actions may have added to the pain and distress already caused by the horrific abuse they endured, and I am deeply sorry for contributing to their suffering.<\/p>\n

\"DanielDaniel Ramamoorthy, who was found guilty by a jury of one count of sexually exploiting a teenager. Photograph: Collins Courts <\/p>\n

\u201cI failed to give proper weight to the gravity of the crimes, to the trauma experienced by the victim and their family, and the courage it takes to report such abuse. I was extremely naive and I was wrong.<\/p>\n

\"JimJim Glennon during an Irish rugby squad session at Lansdowne Road in 1987. Photograph: Peter Thursfield <\/p>\n

\u201cI will be writing to the family of the victim, through the Courts Service, to express my sincere apologies directly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will also be resigning from any and all employment, consultancies and directorships that I currently hold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glennon had served as a non-executive chairman at Edelman Ireland, the global communications firm, since 2008. According to the firm\u2019s website, Glennon provided \u201cpublic affairs advice to a range of clients, bringing unique insights and perspective through his political and policy experience\u201d. <\/p>\n

It is understood that Glennon has not been a member of Fianna F\u00e1il in over a decade. In a statement on Sunday, a spokeswoman for the party said that the Taoiseach \u201cwas clear in his comments on this matter at the Arbour Hill commemoration on April 19th, 2026\u2033. <\/p>\n

Speaking at that event, Martin had said that he did not believe it was \u201cacceptable\u201d for public representatives to offer such character references. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose remarks stand,\u201d a spokeswoman said. \u201cHe believes it is right and proper that the author of the character reference has come forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glennon, who is also a former international rugby player, was a former selector, coach and manager for Leinster Rugby<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Glennon is also listed as a \u201cstrategic adviser\u201d for Anyscor, a tech start-up that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help smaller clubs to capture and share live match data. He remained listed on the Anyscor website on Sunday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Fianna F\u00e1il TD Jim Glennon has confirmed he was the politician who offered a character reference for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,7038,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-419253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-irish-politics","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}