Former Sinn Fein press officer Michael McMonagle jailed for child sex offences

A former Sinn Fein press officer has been given a nine-month jail term after pleading guilty to child sex offences. Michael McMonagle, 43, from Limewood Street in Derry, was sentenced at Derry Crown Court on Friday.

He was given nine months in prison followed by nine months under statutory supervision and has been barred from working with children and vulnerable adults.

The case plunged Sinn Fein into controversy, sparking a flurry of questions about the party's safeguarding protocols and how two other party press officers vouched for McMonagle for a subsequent role with the British Heart Foundation.

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Speaking outside court, Detective Chief Superintendent Lindsay Fisher branded Michael McMonagle a "predator who was combing the internet for underage victims"

She said, "Our child internet protection team work in online spaces so that we can catch paedophiles, hopefully before they traumatise and harm children in our communities.

“It is by no means an easy job but a rewarding one when we are able to bring offenders like McMonagle before the courts as we have done so today. McMonagle is a predator who was combing the internet for underage victims.

“Let this serve as a warning, we are everywhere. If you are attempting to communicate with a child online in a sexual way, you will be caught and you will face the full force of the law when you are.”

The PSNI said that as a “result of a proactive policing operation led by the PSNI’s Child Internet Protection Team, it was discovered that from May 2020 over the course of 15 months McMonagle interacted with a number of ‘child’ profiles between the age of 12 and 14”.

They added that he “quickly turned the conversation to that of a sexual nature and in August 2021 attempted to get what he believed to be multiple children aged 14 and under to perform sexual acts”.

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