Pedophile badminton champion who paid women to look after their children is jailed

Duggan’s own attorney, Mark Nicholas, described his actions as “absolutely despicable”.

Duggan was previously returned to court for 47 child sex offenses, but the state accepted plea bargaining on 22 felonies ranging from sexually assaulting children, sexually exploiting children, inciting sexual acts, possessing children’s nude pictures and encouraging others. including the victims’ mothers, to produce “child pornography”.

The crimes occurred at locations in Limerick and in Kerry on dates between 2015 and 2021.

Today Duggan was sentenced to eight years in prison, with the last year suspended.

Meanwhile, a mother, whose name cannot be released for legal reasons, who sold nude photos of her children to Duggan has been sentenced to three years in prison, with the last 18 months suspended.

Both she and Duggan have been placed on the sex offender registry indefinitely.

At a sentencing hearing at Tralee Circuit Court last week, it was revealed that Duggan’s fall began when he was working as a supermarket manager in Limerick in 2016.

Gardaí were alarmed after the father of two young girls discovered inappropriate messages Duggan had sent to the girls via Snapchat.

Duggan volunteered at a Garda station and admitted he had “groomed” the two innocent girls before asking them to send him naked pictures of themselves on their cellphones.

Duggan went on to disclose other offenses that the court classified as “critical” in at least two of four separate Gardai investigations into his sex crimes against children.

As a result of Duggan’s revelations, Gardaí arrested a Kerry mother who admitted taking nude pictures of her young son and daughter and selling the pictures to Duggan.

The woman’s lawyer said at the sentencing hearing that the woman was “psychologically and financially vulnerable” following the death of her partner.

The attorney said the woman met Duggan through a dating app and initially “sold” to Duggan for sex.

“She went from selling herself to exploiting her children for financial gain. She will have to live with the stigma and burden of what she did for the rest of her life,” the attorney said.

The woman was tried on 26 counts, but the state accepted her guilty pleas in seven counts of the sexual exploitation of her son and daughter to Duggan for money.

Duggan paid her more than €3,000 for a total of 19 nude photos of her children, the court heard.

Gardaí discovered 19 individual electronic payments from Dugggan’s bank account to the woman’s account in amounts ranging from €50 to €300.

The woman’s children are cared for by Tusla, but she receives supervised visits to them.

The woman’s attorney said her two children had told social workers they wanted a relationship with their mother in the future.

The woman, in her 30s, recently met her children and gave a “full disclosure” of what she had done, the court heard.

Her lawyer asked the court not to send her to jail, saying a prison sentence was “not in the best interests of the judiciary or society” and that imprisonment would “fail” her efforts to redeem herself.

“We are dealing with a very damaged and vulnerable person here,” said the lawyer.

Judge Elva Duffy said a psychological assessment had “concerns” that the woman had shown a tendency to “minimise” her role in crimes against her children and noted that she had refused to become a gardaí say she took nude photos of her children.

The woman’s attorney told the judge the woman admitted taking the pictures and selling them to Duggan.

He said the woman has since had another child with another man, they have separated, and the man has full custody of their child.

The court heard Duggan also admitted to throwing a handwritten note at two young girls from a window of his car as he drove past them, offering them 50 euros to see their bare chests.

The girls took the note to their parents, who in turn contacted Gardaí, and Duggan was identified in CCTV images at a location in Kerry driving his “distinctive blue Jaguar car”.

Gardaí discovered a number of similar handwritten notes and lollipops in Duggan’s car when they subsequently searched the vehicle.

Duggan also pleaded guilty to paying the mother of a young girl €400 to gain access to her young daughter for sizzling sexual gratification.

The court heard he also admitted to paying a sex worker an additional €400 for access to the same girl.

Duggan admitted to showering the girl, sexually assaulting her, and inciting or inviting the girl to touch his erect penis.

He also admitted to engaging in sexual activity with the girl’s mother while watching the girl shower in the same room in order to obtain sexual gratification from the girl’s presence.