A 44-year-old former cathaoirleach of Cavan County Council who stole €172,000 from a Co Meath mental health charity has been sent to prison for three years and nine months with the final 12 months suspended. Sean McKiernan of Trinity Bungalow, Virginia Road, Bailieborough, Co Cavan was said to have spent funds of Navan Mental Health Housing Association on South American male escorts for sexual services where illegal drugs crystal meth and GHB were used, Trim Circuit Court was told.
The thefts were described by Judge Jonathan Dunphy as a serious breach of trust to a number of vulnerable people as an employee of a charity. The court was told that the Navan Mental Health organisation was founded by the late Margot Davis assisted by her husband Jack.
The court heard that McKiernan, who had been secretary/treasurer of the Co Meath charity, had been diagnosed with “major depressive disorder” and had significant self esteem and mental health issues since his teens. He had been lonely and arranged escorts to procure drugs, including a date rape drug because he enjoyed the “highs and euphoria” of taking illegal drugs.
Sean McKiernan a former cathaoirleach of Cavan County Council who stole €172,000 has done severe damaged to the Navan Mental Health organisation.
He had pleaded guilty to 11 sample counts of theft of the money out of a total of 58 counts. The thefts occurred between March 2019 and April 2020 at unknown locations in the State. The thefts ranged in amounts from €700 to €6,000. At the sentencing hearing, which went on for approximately 90 minutes, was told by Detective Garda Sean Patterson of Navan Garda Station the videos recovered from the defendant’s phone following his arrest by appointment showed him smoking a crack pipe and lying in bed with an individual instructing that person to perform a sex act on him.
This underscored the scale of the betrayal of the charity, prosecuting counsel Kitty Perle told the hearing. The detective said that Margot Davis had set up the charity in 2001 for the benefit of those with mental health issues in the community and to provide them with independent living. McKiernan became secretary and treasurer and could co-sign cheques along with one of two other trustees. In 2019 he had obtained cheques without named recipients and at one stage had taken an entire cheque book from the accountancy firm FLD chartered accountants Ltd. He persuaded trustees to sign blank cheques they believed were for charity.
Up to that point the cheque book had also remained at the accountancy firm’s office. When an audit was arranged in 2020 he gave various excuses for delayed tax returns. The accountancy firm then found unusually large withdrawals to named individuals not normally associated with payments from the charity.
These names were of South American men and women and individuals in Ireland, again not associated in any way with the charity or its suppliers. The defendant had said that these were genuine cases, that they were people with mental health issues, that they were loans that would be paid back, and that they were Hse-nominated persons. On one occasion he said he would repay €50,000 and on another €235,000 but no money was repaid.
Trustees of the charity made contact with the Charities Regulator but then reported the matter to the Gardai in February 2022. An investigation started at Navan Garda Station, Detective Patterson said. A total of 58 cheques were involved and the Garda said he followed the money trail. He found that cheques were lodged to 33 individuals into 32 separate bank accounts across 23 bank branches. These amounts ranged from €700 to €6,000. He added that all the recipients seemed to be South American males and he met a number of them and interviewed them.
These men were mainly male escorts whose profiles were on different escort sites. McKiernan was “paying for their services as escorts”, he said. “He wanted to pay for sex and drugs by way of cheques from the charity”, the detective said. An Irishman, whose life spiralled to drink and drugs after he lost his partner in 2018, met a Brazilian woman and frequented her brothel. This man said he saw McKiernan coming out of a bedroom naked and smoking crystal meth from a crack pipe.
This male had said that McKiernan was “extremely cocky and arrogant”, had offered him a crack pipe and had told him he was a senator. The Brazilian woman had asked the man to lodge a cheque for €4,600 on McKiernan’s behalf, into his own account and gave him instructions on how to withdraw the money.
Another person had told the detective that he was asked by a person to accept a cheque and deposit it into his own bank account. However, two cheques for €6,000 each had been deposited and McKiernan contacted him with instructions on how to withdraw the money and who to give it to. The individual had told garda Patterson that he was disturbed that €12,000 had been put into his bank account.
The court was told that the net result was that Navan Mental Health Housing Association charity no longer existed by name and had been taken over by Drogheda Homeless Aid.
Defence barrister Gareth Baker told the court that his client had “put his head in the sand” and had confided in male escorts that he had financial problems and depression. He said that a forensic psychologist had reported that McKiernan had major depressive disorder since adolescence and that he had a certain physiological condition that impacted on sexual functioning and that this appeared to have contributed greatly to his mental distress. As a result he began to meet men several times a year.
Mr Baker said that his client was “deeply ashamed that he grossly abused trust and power”. “He knows he damaged the charity in a brutal way and the shame has become paralysing to him”. He had suffered seismic reputational damage and his life in the public service is over. It was unfortunate that he had not made any reimbursement. “He knows he has fences to mend with family, friends and the community and wishes dearly to meet the residents of the charity again to say sorry”, Mr Baker said.
Judge Jonathan Dunphy sentenced Sean McKiernan to three years and nine months imprisonment, with the final 12 months suspended. He was also ordered to come under the supervision of the Probation Service for two years following his release.
Defence counsel asked for a postponement of the jail term to allow him to get his affairs in order and to make arrangements for the care of his elderly parents but this was refused by the judge.
Sean McKiernan was a Fine Gael councilor for Bailieborough electoral area from 2007 to 2014. He made history in 2011 when he was elected the youngest ever cathaoirleach of Cavan County Council. He was also a member of Cavan/Monaghan Education Training Board and served as its cathaoirleach in 2016.
