{"id":532778,"date":"2026-07-04T14:11:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T14:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/532778\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T14:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T14:11:15","slug":"defence-force-member-put-on-leave-after-being-caught-in-paedo-hunter-sting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/532778\/","title":{"rendered":"Defence Force member put on leave after being caught in paedo hunter sting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The officer, who can\u2019t be identified, was confronted by a self-styled paedophile hunting group after it was alleged the man went to meet two young girls, aged 13 and 14 for sexual intent.<\/p>\n

12:05, 04 Jul 2026Updated 13:47, 04 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A still from the video posted to Facebook by Justice Re-Born, a paedophile hunter group<\/p>\n

A serving member of the Defence Forces<\/a> has been placed on Special Leave after admitting sexual communications with children while he was on duty.<\/p>\n

The officer, who can\u2019t be identified, was confronted by a self-styled paedophile hunting group after it was alleged the man went to meet two young girls, aged 13 and 14 for sexual intent.<\/p>\n

The officer, who has six children, is also alleged to have been sending sexually explicit messages, photos and videos to the young girls.<\/p>\n

Paedophile hunting group, Justice Reborn, informed the officer during a sting operation, which was streamed live on Facebook on Thursday, July 2 for nearly 43 minutes, that if it wasn\u2019t them in front of him it would have been the two young children.<\/p>\n

When asked if he planned on sexual intent if the young girls turned up he replied: \u201cIt was on my mind, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He admitted he had bottles of alcohol in his car and was \u201cgoing to bring them to Dublin Zoo, maybe the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n

He admitted on the live feed he is in the Defence Forces and admitted communicating with the young girls while on duty.<\/p>\n

\"Gardai<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed are investigating (Image: Niall Carson\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

He was also told by the paedo hunting group that the dads of the two young girls wanted to be present at the sting and that he told his partner he was \u201coff with the army\u201d the day he was approached by the group.<\/p>\n

When asked by the group why he sent sexually explicit videos, photos and messages, he replied: \u201cBecause I am f**king stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked \u201cWhat\u2019s the phrase we have for people like you,\u201d he replied: \u201cScum.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then admitted he had alcohol in his car and that he said it was for him and the two young girls.<\/p>\n

He claimed he isn\u2019t attracted to children and claimed \u201cI don\u2019t know why I did this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sexually explicit messages the officer sent the children were read back to him and he admitted sending them as well as sexually explicit photos and videos of himself.<\/p>\n

When asked what his plan was if he got the two children into his car, he said \u201cNothing that they didn\u2019t want.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if he was going to \u201cfill the children with drink and then rape them,\u201d he replied: \u201cDrink, yeah,\u201d and admitted he was going to \u201cstop if they asked him to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

He claimed it was the first time he had arranged to meet underage children and also admitted sending porn videos to the young girls \u201cso they could watch to get pointers to what he could do to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the 42 minutes and 44 seconds live video ended, the paedo hunting group told the officer: \u201cGardai are now on the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In a statement to this paper, the Defence Forces confirmed that a serving member was questioned by gardai and is now on Special Leave pending the outcome of an investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe individual concerned has been placed on Special Leave without prejudice pending the outcome of an investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs this investigation is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to provide any further comment at this time,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, An Garda Siochana<\/a> said: \u201cGardai received a report of an alleged incident that occurred in the Phoenix Park<\/a>, Dublin on the 2nd of July 2026. No arrests have been made at this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvestigations are ongoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder section 9 Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024 An Garda Siochana is the sole agency invested with the statutory role of preserving peace and public order.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sign up to our new Crime Ireland newsletter and get exclusive content from Michael O’Toole and Paul Healy<\/p>\n

The Irish Mirror’s Crime Writers Michael O’Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up<\/a> and get it delivered to your inbox every week<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is An Garda Siochana’s statutory role to investigate crime and enforce enacted legislation, ensuring that every citizen is afforded their constitutional right to innocence until proven guilty and a human rights-based criminal investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Garda Siochana urges anyone with information regarding breaches of criminal law to report it directly to us, where it will be investigated professionally and thoroughly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Garda Siochana works closely with our communities in line with our mission of keeping people safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Garda Siochana, in addition to Community Policing Units, has a number of initiatives in place to facilitate engagement with communities and reporting of concerns including Community Alert, Neighbourhood Watch, Community Text Alert and \u2018See Something, Say Something\u2019 and the Garda Confidential Phone number 1800 666 111.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Garda Siochana is acutely aware of the significant volume of misinformation, disinformation and fake news in circulation in relation to public safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe actions of certain private groups are a cause for concern for An Garda Siochana and other police services.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Garda Siochana would be concerned that, even with the best of intentions, there is potential for confrontation between such volunteer safety patrols groups and other persons, confrontations which could result in harm to any person present.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdditionally, there are legal concerns surrounding their activities, which may also have implications for future criminal proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The officer, who can\u2019t be identified, was confronted by a self-styled paedophile hunting group after it was alleged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,13308,615,61,60,43,29685],"class_list":["post-532778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-defence-forces","tag-dublin","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-phoenix-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532778","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=532778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}