Michael McMonagle, former Sinn Féin press officer, jailed for nine months for child sexual offences

Former Sinn Féin press officer Michael McMonagle, who pleaded guilty to 15 child sexual offences charges in September, has been sentenced to a total of 18 months, nine of which are to be spent in jail, on Friday morning at Derry Crown Court.
McMonagle (43), with an address at Limewood Street in Derry, faced two charges of attempted incitement of a child to engage in sexual activity and 13 counts of attempted sexual communication with a child between 2020 and 2021.
McMonagle was sentenced to 18 months, nine to be spent in jail and nine months on licence, subject to strict conditions.
McMonagle’s case provoked controversy and the resignation of two Sinn Féin press officers from their jobs and the party after it emerged that they had provided him with references that helped him to get a position with the British Heart Foundation.
The former Sinn Féin press officer, who had previously worked as a journalist in Derry, was suspended from the party in 2021 after the Police Service of Northern Ireland arrested him for child-sex offences.
Seán Mag Uidhir, a senior figure within Sinn Féin, and Caolán McGinley, who had once headed the party’s Ogra branch in Derry, resigned once it emerged that they had provided references for McMonagle.
Sinn Féin was sharply criticised about what it knew about McMonagle’s conduct and when, especially when a photograph showed McMonagle, in his new heart charity role, standing just feet away from First Minister Michelle O’Neill in Stormont.
McMonagle pleaded guilty to the charges against him when he appeared at Derry Crown Court in September. Then, his barrister Kieran Mallon KC applied for a psychology report to be carried out.
He was released then on bail. Speaking during that hearing, Judge Neil Rafferty warned McMonagle that it was “‘likely a custodial sentence would follow”, even though he released him then on bail.
During his first court appearance last year he was charged with three offences but a dozen more were added later, covering dates between May 2020 and August 2021. In all, he was accused of 13 counts of attempted sexual communication with a child.
McMonagle told Sinn Féin on August 20th that he had been arrested by the PSNI the previous day and questioned about serious criminal child protection offences. He was suspended immediately as a party press officer.
His employment with Sinn Féin ended 10 months later when his contract expired. In September of that year, he was hired by the British Heart Foundation as its communications manager.
The references given by his Mr Mag Uidhir and Mr McGinley had not “raised concerns about his suitability for employment or references the ongoing police investigation or suspension from his previous employment”, the BHF said in September.
In February 2023, McMonagle worked at a BHF event in Stormont’s Great Hall with the family of Dáithí Mac Gabhann, the seven-year-old boy waiting on a heart transplant who features in an organ donation campaign.
The First Minister attended the gathering, but she said later that she had not been aware then that McMonagle was present, even though they were just feet apart.
The succession of controversies sparked off by the disclosure and Sinn Fein’s handling of the matter led the party leader, Mary Lou McDonald to pledge a “complete overhaul” of the party’s governance procedures.