Courts / Dublin / Report
Serial offender with 'deep sexual interest' in children gets 7.5 years after online sting
Summary
Michael Macken, a serial offender with a deep sexual interest in children, was jailed for seven and a half years after being caught in a Facebook sting operation. In August 2024, Macken engaged in highly sexualised conversations with individuals he believed were young girls, but the accounts were operated by adults pretending to be teens. He was charged with nine counts of communicating with a person to facilitate sexual exploitation of a child and six counts of attempting to send sexually explicit material to a child. He pleaded guilty to sample counts. Judge Orla Crowe noted his previous convictions for sexual assaults on young children and described his actions as serious and deeply concerning. She imposed two concurrent sentences of eight years, suspending the final six months on the condition that Macken remains under the supervision of The Probation Service. Detective Garda Keith Alford explained that a vigilante group confronted Macken with evidence of his online activities.
Who, what, where, when and why
What: Report matter: Serial offender with 'deep sexual interest' in children gets 7.5 years after online sting. Charges or matters: nine counts of communicating with a person with the intention to facilitate sexual exploitation of a child and pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to a number of sample counts; a single sample count. Procedural stage: sentence
When:
- August 2024 Other
- February 21, 2025 Incident
- 2026-05-20 Publication
Why: The Facebook accounts were actually adults pretending to be young teens in order to expose potential child predators and the "children" did not exist. CNI source report
Case subjects
Accused
Charges: nine counts of communicating with a person with the intention to facilitate sexual exploitation of a child and pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to a number of sample counts; a single sample count (Admitted)
Plea: Guilty
Outcome: The judge then imposed two concurrent sentences of eight years. She suspended the final six months of that sentence on condition that Macken remain under the supervision of The Probation Service for 18 months, during which time he is also to make any of his electronic devices available to gardaí for their scrutiny.
Places mentioned
- Dublin
- Dublin Circuit Criminal Court
- drove him to the garda station
- order incident outside the garda station
Topics
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