Latest news with #WayneMcMahon
Sunday World
7 hours ago
- Sunday World
Wayne McMahon: Wexford man asked 12-year-old girl ‘can I get you pregnant?'
Wayne McMahon used WhatsApp to send inappropriate messages The man contacted the woman out of the blue on WhatsApp. Stock image: Getty A 38-year-old man from Wexford Town described as having an intellectual disability was prosecuted in the Circuit Court for attempted sexual exploitation of children. Wayne McMahon from Wolfe Tone Villas, Wexford, used WhatsApp to send inappropriate messages. However, all was not as it seemed when he began communicating with a purported female in 2021. The girl he thought he was exchanging texts with was in fact a man attached to a so-called paedophile hunter group in the UK. The decoy alerted police who in turn notified the gardaí who turned up at the house in Wolfe Tone Villas. McMahon's phone was seized and evidence of his highly inappropriate messages came to light. 'I'll get you naked,' he wrote to one girl he believed was 14 years of age. Others he contacted with were apparently aged as young as 12, whom he sent phrases such as 'can I see your boobs?' or 'can I get you pregnant?' Detective Garda Lar Dempsey reckoned that all the 'girls', at least seven of them, were in fact decoys operated by the paedophile hunters. In each instance the sequence of exchanges lasted no more than 48 hours and no arrangements were made to meet up in person. He routinely gave his age in the texts and he made no effort to conceal his identity. McMahon's brother was in court to hear barrister Jordan Fletcher pass on his client's shame and regret. Counsel noted that the defendant had been mute for much of his childhood following the death of a friend. The man contacted the woman out of the blue on WhatsApp. Stock image: Getty Today's News in 90 Seconds - 09 June 2025 As an adult he was shy and had difficulties reaching out to women his own age. It appeared that at the time of his offending he was drinking heavily, the court was told. Judge James McCourt noted that the maximum sentence available to the court was a prison term of 14 years. However, he contented himself with marking the gravity of the misbehaviour with a four-year sentence. This was suspended in full as the judge told McMahon to cease taking alcohol.
Irish Independent
2 days ago
- Irish Independent
Wexford man with intellectual disability guilty of attempted sexual exploitation of children
Wexford People A 38-year-old man from Wexford Town described as having an intellectual disability was prosecuted in the Circuit Court for attempted sexual exploitation of children. Wayne McMahon from 30 Wolfe Tone Villas, Wexford, used WhatsApp to send inappropriate messages. However, all was not as it seemed when he began communicating with a purported female in 2021.
