Man caught in child-decoy sex sting jailed for five years

A man who travelled to Donegal from Dublin intending to have sex with a 13-year-old girl has been jailed for five years.

Kiran Srinivasan was snared after he sent a series of explicit messages on Snapchat and WhatsApp to a decoy from a "paedophile hunters" group posing as a 13-year-old girl.

The 30-year-old was handed a five-year prison sentence by Judge John Aylmer at Letterkenny Circuit Court.

In jailing Srinivasan, Judge Aylmer said that there was "very big planning and premeditation" in his attempt to commit the offence.

Srinivasan has been in custody since his arrest following a sting operation at a car park in Letterkenny by the Justice Reborn group in July 2025 and the court heard that deportation proceedings to India have begun.

Judge Aylmer noted that this was a matter for Minister for Justice Helen McEntee.

His barrister, Sean McGee, had told the court that those proceedings "are working their way through" at present.

Srinivasan previously entered guilty pleas to two charges and the court heard that a book of evidence in the case ran to some 450 pages.

Srinivasan admitted that on 15 July 2025, he attempted to meet a child for the purpose of doing anything that would constitute sexual exploitation of that child having attempted to communicate by messages with that child on at least one occasion.

He also pleaded guilty to communicating with another person by Snapchat and WhatsApp for the purpose of facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child on dates at an unknown location between 10 and 15 July 2025 contrary to Section 8 of the Criminal Law (Sexual offences) Act 2017.

Dressed in a purple puffer jacket and glasses, Srinivasan sat in the dock as details of his offending were outlined to the court.

Detective Garda Michael O'Carroll told Fiona Crawford, Barrister for the State, that officers responded to an incident in a car park at Paddy Harte Road in Letterkenny where members of the Justice Reborn group confronted Srinivasan.

Documentation handed over by Justice Reborn to detectives showed communications between Srinivasan and a person he believed to be a 13-year-old child over the course of six days, between 10 and 15 July 2025, both dates inclusive.

The court heard how a woman who acts as a decoy for the Justice Reborn group set up a profile on Snapchat and Srinivasan added her on 10 July.

After Srinivasan asked "you single? xx", the decoy responded saying: "Hi, I'm Aoife, 13 from Donegal. WBU? (what 'bout you?)".

Soon, the conversation switched to WhatsApp and Srinivasan sent a photo of his car, a Suzuki Swift, saying he would drive to Donegal. He suggested that they could go to a beach and go skinny-dipping.

Srinivasan referred to kissing and cuddling and asked if the girl was a virgin.

In one message, he said: "Keep between ourselves until you are 18. Don’t want the parents to know".

Srinivasan booked an Airbnb and sent the EirCode to the decoy, asking if she wanted to hang out and watch television. Srinivasan said he would bring condoms and ended that message by saying "ha ha".

Detective Garda O’Carroll confirmed that two condoms were found on Srinivasan when he was searched while four others were found among his belongings.

Judge Aylmer asked how early in the conversation Srinivasan would have been aware the person he perceived to be a child was 13-years-old. Ms Crawford confirmed that this was in the first response.

Mr McGee said Srinivasan came to Ireland on a Stamp 4 visa having finished secondary school in India. Srinivasan graduated from the University of Limerick with first-class honours in Aircraft Maintenance and Airworthiness Engineering.

After graduating, he worked on a graduate programme with an aviation company for two years, but was unemployed during this period of offending.

Srinivasan was described as having felt "lonely and alienated" at the time he committed the offences. During an interview with the Probation Service, Srinivasan admitted that the contact with the decoy account had made him feel better.

"He was experiencing stress from unemployment and he went down a road he should never have traversed," Mr McGee said.

Mr McGee said that while Srinivasan did not consider that people had been harmed in this incident at the time, he now had capacity for victim empathy.

"He has demonstrated insight in his interactions with the Probation Service," the barrister said.

A risk assessment placed the defendant at a high risk of reoffending.

Mr McGee asked Judge Aylmer to take account of the early plea and the fact that Srinivasan has no previous convictions and cooperated fully at all times.

"He wishes to apologise to the court and to Irish society for what he has done," Mr McGee said. "He resolves never to offend again."

While Srinivasan penned a letter of apology to the court, Mr McGee said he was opting not to open it "given some of the content".

Passing sentence, Judge Aylmer said there was nothing much to distinguish the two charges as to their gravity.

Judge Aylmer said the evidence was that Srinivasan had, in fact, been communicating with a ‘child decoy’ and added that had there been a child, he would have placed the offence at the upper end of the scale.

However, because there was no actual child or victim, he placed both charges in the mid-range of offending with both meriting a sentence of seven years in prison before mitigation.

Judge Aylmer said it was always indicated that the accused was not going to contest the charges. The judge also noted Srinivasan’s education and work history.

The judge said he was reducing the headline sentence to one of five years in prison and backdated it to when Srinivasan went into prison in July 2025.