A former cathaoirleach of Cavan County Council has been jailed today for 3 years and 9 months in relation to theft of money from a mental health charity.
Seán McKiernan, 44, with an address at Trinity Bungalow, Virginia Road, Bailieboro, Co Cavan has been jailed for 3 years and 9 months with that final 12 months suspended.
Judge Johnathan Dunphy at Trim Circuit Court heard how the money was spent on paying men for sex and for them to buy drugs for Mr McKiernan, the likes of crystal meth, Ghb liquid ecstasy and cocaine.
The former Fine Gael Councillor was charged with 58 counts of theft at various unknown locations within the State.
The total amount involved in the theft from the County Meath based charity was just over €172,000.
The charges relate to thefts in amounts ranging from €500 to €6,000 from Navan Mental Health Housing Association Ltd on dates in 2019 and 2020.
Mr McKiernan pleaded guilty to 11 charges in total, 9 of which he pleaded to today and two in the summer at a previous sitting.
The court was asked to take the other charges into consideration on a full facts basis.
Count 3 that he pleaded guilty to was in relation to €4,600 on May 8th 2019, count 5 occurred on the 18th of June 2019 resulting in the theft of €6,600, count 8 was also for the same amount of €6,000 which occurred on the 5th of July 2019.
Count 17 was in relation to the theft of €5,400 on the 7th of August 2019, count 31 occurred on the 2nd of September 2019 for the amount of €4,600.
Other charges that Mr McKiernan pleaded guilty today to were, count 40 which occurred on the 4th of October also in 2019 for €3,000, count 51 which occurred on the 26th of November 2019 for €3,000 also, count 55 occurred on the 6th of the December in the same year for €2,000 and count 56 resulted in the theft of €1,500 on the 24th of March 2020.
Mr McKiernan appeared in July before Judge John Martin at Trim Circuit Court, where the former Fine Gael councillor pleaded guilty to two more sample charges, count 1 and count 58.
Count 1 involves the theft of €5,230 on the 26th of March 2019 at an unknown location while count 58 involves the theft of €800 from the Meath based charity on the 6th of April 2020.
All the charges were in relation to stealing money from Navan Mental Health Housing Association Ltd.
Trim Circuit Court heard how Mr McKiernan wrote 58 cheques in 2019 and 2020 for 33 individuals mainly South American men.
The court was told after extensive investigations, it was found that most of these individuals were male escorts and Mr McKiernan was paying for services from the recipients of these cheques.
Lead investigating Garda, Detective Garda Sean Patterson said while giving evidence today the funds were used for drugs and sex, he said Mr McKiernan in some cases visited the same men up to 10 times.
Detective Garda Patterson gave evidence of the arrest of Mr McKiernan on the 28th of March 2023 at Navan Garda Station where he was interviewed five times, each time he said he had no comment to make.
Mr McKiernan was released and a file was prepared for the DPP. His mobile phone was seized and this supplied Gardai with evidence backing up the interactions between the defendant and male escorts. There were messages on his mobile phone within apps downloaded to his phone from people named on some of the cheques.
There were also images of some of the cheques and the patent by cheque was also discussed through text on his mobile phone.
There were also videos on his device showing him allegedly taking drugs and in the company of a male escort too.
The court was told the total money stolen from the Meath charity was €172,120 and that the charity itself had provided independent living for people in the area with mental health problems since 2001.
Since 2013, Mr McKiernan was the secretary and treasurer of the charity and he was responsible for the finances of the charitable organisation.
The court also heard how Mr McKiernan had to sign any cheques that were issued by the charity along with one of the two other trustees. The court also heard that up until 2019 the cheque book remained with the accountant firm that looked after the organisation’s accounts. Mr McKiernan requested the cheque book but never returned it and as the trustees were of a certain age, he got one of them to co-sign a number of blank cheques thinking the cheques would be used for the day to day charitable expenses involved.
Garda Detective Patterson told the court in July 2020, an auditor from the accountant firm FLD accountants based in Navan contacted Mr McKiernan as they wanted to complete a tax return for that year but he had given them a number of excuses and eventually in October 2020 he gave the auditor the bank details for the charity.
The accounts highlighted large amounts paid out to people with no link to the Meath based charity which was very much out of the ordinary.
The recipients were mainly male, South American men and some South American women. The lead Garda in this case said while there were some Irish names too, the majority were South American men.
When it was put to Mr McKiernan about these payments, he said they were people who were suffering from mental health problems and that he had received these people’s names from the HSE.
The auditor at the accountant firm was concerned so it was raised with their employer.
A meeting was held by then chairperson the now deceased William Burke in May of 2021 where the members outlined their concerns and Mr McKiernan had advised them that these were genuine cases and that these were loans to these individuals and that they would be repaid with no further information given at the time.
He said the loans were for assisting people with their rents and in one case one was allegedly for a college course.
Over the coming weeks and months other meetings took place where Mr McKiernan said he would pay back €50,000 and then a few weeks after it went down to €25,000 but he was told by the trustees that all the money would have to be paid back but no money was ever forthcoming.
The charity regulator was contacted by the charities legal team and at that stage it was reported to Gardai with an investigation opening in February of 2022 which looked into the 58 cheques that were written with no connection to the charity which had been operating over the past three decades.
Garda Detective Patterson said the 58 cheques were paid to 33 individuals into 32 bank accounts at 23 individual bank branches ranging from €700 to over €6,000.
The lead investigating Garda said he met a number of these cheque recipients and took statements and the pattern was that they were male escorts and Mr McKiernan was paying them for their services.
He said that the Co Cavan man visited some of the same men up to 10 times and paid for sex and drugs, using these cheques as a form of payment.
The court was told how one of the people that received money who wasn’t an escort described how he met Mr McKiernan. This individual lost his partner in 2018 and turned to drink and drugs and met a Brazilian woman online who worked in a brothel. This man would visit the brothel to buy drugs but met Sean McKiernan standing in a bedroom naked taking drugs out of a suspected crack pipe and Mr McKiernan allegedly told this individual that he was a senator.
This woman asked if this individual would allow her to lodge money into his account, he said he didn’t realise that the amount would be anyway as big as €4,600 and that in fact it was for Mr McKiernan.
Another individual was asked to use his account to lodge two cheques totalling €12,000, Sean McKiernan called him after the lodgement was complete and asked him to take out the cash for €6,000 and lodge the other €6,000 to his own bank account.
Senior counsel Gareth Baker said the offending was over a 13 month period from March 2019 to April 2020. Mr Baker said prior to the Gardai getting involved Mr McKiernan made the point that he was in the wrong and indicated that money would be paid back but that had never happened.
He said his early guilty plea resulted in the case not going to trial which would have saved the very lengthy investigation being detailed during a trial.
Mr Baker outlined Mr McKiernan’s political career and how drug use began for him in 2016, he said that depression had taken hold and that losing his council seat in 2014 was a major knock to Mr McKiernan.
He said the other mitigating factors were his acknowledgment of wrongdoing, a number of personal factors like no previous convictions along with never coming to the attention of the Gardai.
Mr Baker also said the significant sizeable damage to any chance of a continued political career which he says was now stone dead.
He told the court that Mr McKiernan had no way of making any sort if payment as he was not working and had no financial assets.
His barrister did say that at the turning of 50 years of age Mr McKiernan would have access to receiving a payment from Cavan County Council of over €30,000 and also early access to over €40,000 of a pension from Mental Health Ireland who he worked for over 10 years.
A psychology report was carried out and found Mr McKiernan had a false confidence issue, it also found he had social anxiety issues and also has a sexual functioning issue.
The report said he was dealing with his sexuality for a number of years and he met sex workers during to sexual frustrations and because he was lonely and he was seeking companionship.
The report found that he was at the low end risk of reoffending and that he was deeply ashamed for his actions. It was also said that he has relapsed on occasions when it comes to using drugs.
After hearing the evidence this morning Judge Johnathan Dunphy, took until this afternoon to digest the information and the physiology report and to finalise the case at Trim Circuit Court.
Judge Dunphy outlined the case ahead of sentencing said it was a very detailed forensic Garda investigation. He said Mr McKiernan’s avoidance showed how he was burying one’s head in the sand.
He highlighted how no money was ever forthcoming and no money was in court today, he said in handing down the sentence, a number of factors had to be taken to consideration.
A victim impact statement was read out on behalf of Michael Finnegan who was one of the trustees, he said Navan Mental Health Housing Association Ltd was set up by Margo Davis and it allowed 6 to 7 people to reside at the property that they had in Navan.
He said that due to the huge financial loss, Navan Mental Health Housing Association Ltd no longer exists. He said an employee lost a job and the social club that vulnerable and older people would have attended had to close also.
A victim impact statement was also read out on behalf of Elizabeth Egan who had worked at the charity for 23 years for three days a week. She said her husband Micheal also helped too, she said she cooked and cleaned and helped people and she enjoyed the work over the years.
The statement went on to say that Elizabeth spoke of how her reputation was affected since the theft and closure.
She also says residents couldn’t fully understand what was going on and she said even though she wasn’t kept on doing the work she had done for over 2 decades, she said the biggest impact was on the residents who had suffered the most.
Mr McKiernan was a councillor for the Bailieborough electoral area from 2007 to 2014, he made history back in 2011 when at age 29 he was elected as the youngest ever Cathaoirleach of Cavan County Council.
Mr McKiernan was also a member of Cavan Monaghan Education Training Board and he also served a term as its cathaoirleach. He also was a member of the national executive of Fine Gael for over a decade.
He was actively involved in the All Ireland Fleadh Cheoil in Cavan Town in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and was involved in the West Cavan Burren Geopark as well as the Taste of Cavan Festival.
Free legal aid was previously granted to the former councillor in the form of a solicitor and two barristers.
McKiernan, who was dressed in a navy jacket, beige trousers and red scarf now begins his sentence today of 2 years and nine months.
