GRAHAM KENNEDY, FORMER PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER FROM GALWAY, JAILED IN WOLVERHAMPTON

In May 2004, Graham Kennedy, a 33-year-old former primary school teacher from Galway, was sentenced to prison for a sex-related offence involving a 14-year-old boy he groomed online. Kennedy was found to possess over 73,000 indecent images of children on his computer, Wolverhampton Crown Court learned.

Judge William Wood, QC, sentenced Kennedy to three-and-a-half years in prison and ordered him to register as a sex offender indefinitely. The judge commented, "You used chatrooms to make contact with children." He explained that Kennedy, a married man residing and working in Birmingham, used the pornographic images he downloaded from the internet for personal gratification.

The court heard that Kennedy, who is now working as a salesman, had contributed to the abuse of children by downloading these images. Kennedy pleaded guilty to two charges of indecent assault and 21 charges of making indecent photographs of a child.

Prosecutor John Evans stated that Kennedy contacted his 14-year-old victim through a chatroom, and after their initial meeting in a pub car park, he twice indecently assaulted the boy. The victim’s mother became suspicious of her son’s behavior and, upon checking his mobile phone, discovered numerous sexual messages, leading to Kennedy's arrest.