IT is the worst nightmare for any woman who decides to give an internet dating website a try.
This ad shows a cheerful and harmless-looking chubby 39-year-old who claims to be a “genuinely good person” and is not just looking for a “one night stand”.
However, looks can be deceiving.
This week, twisted fantasist Mark Mulligan was convicted of child pornography offences after he said he would “love to rape” a three-year-old boy online.
Beneath Mulligan’s mild-mannered exterior, the sicko from Donaghmede in north Dublin harboured a series of perverted fantasies involving sexually abusing innocent children and women.
On Thursday, the Central Criminal Court heard how Mulligan made references to the children of RTE “celebrities” and to kidnapping and raping boys and girls.
During what his own defence barrister described as a “disgusting fantasy conversation”, he said he would “love to rape” the three-year-old son of a woman he knew, because she “pissed” him off.
The evidence was a world away from the mild-mannered image Mulligan has attempted to portray on a popular dating website.
On it he writes: “I’m easy-going, enjoy walking, photography. I go to the cinema now and then, enjoy when I can go to theatre, comedy gigs, watching few things on TV. I’ve taken up walking again as I want to lose a few pounds.
“If you want to know more feel free message me, I’m looking for a date and maybe possibly more depending on where the first date is going so no one night stand or anything.”
However, in court this week Mulligan’s true nature as a sick and twisted pervert was exposed.
The court heard how, in text conversations over Skype with an unknown person, Mulligan said he would “love to rape” the three-year-old son of a woman he knew, because she “pissed” him off. He then sent a non-explicit photograph of the boy to the other person. This other man, using the online identity rodub82, said: “Let’s snatch him.”
The accused replied: “Mmmm make him watch us kill his mum and dad, and then kill him.”
Garnet Orange SC, defending, told the jury that the online exchanges were between two people who were concealing their identities and were disturbing but were in the context of a private conversation. He said that nothing further was done.
After a one-day trial, a jury of 10 men and two women took 44 minutes to return a unanimous verdict of guilty.
Mulligan of Railway Road, Clongriffin, Dublin had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to the production of child pornography at his home on dates between March 1 and March 17, 2013.
In one online text exchange, on the morning of St Patrick’s Day, Mulligan told rodub82: “Lots of horny kids around today in parade.”
He later wrote that he would “love to have a cottage in the middle of nowhere and take kids there and rape and torture them… and shit on their graves”. Rodub82 said they could behave “like a couple of Nazi prison guards”.
Mulligan added: “Love to pick someone up late at night boy girl man woman and rape the bastard. Every time I heard someone got raped it’s a turn on – even more when they are killed?”
He also said he’d like to kidnap and rape a pregnant woman and “get the kid out”.
Mulligan asked rodub82 which Irish celebrity he would rape and rodub82 named the actress Saoirse Ronan, while Mulligan suggested “any of the reporters on RTE”. The other user replied “prefer their kids” and Mulligan agreed and said it would give them something to
remember.
Mulligan told gardaí that the conversations were all just “sick fantasies” and he never intended to act on them.
He said: “I was only saying it, I was never going to meet anybody. We were discussing fantasy rape, as far as I was concerned nothing would be done about it. It was fantasy talk only.
“I get obsessed talking about rape and torture, I know I need help, I wish I didn’t have these thoughts.”
He said that while on the website gayireland.com he contacted a user with the word perv in their internet name and during their Skype conversation he said he “stupidly” said he was interested in raping young people.
Mulligan said he isn’t sexually attracted to children.
“I was lonely, curious, I felt like I was an undercover reporter, trying to get information. I didn’t have any real friends, I distanced myself from reality. I just wanted to talk to people,” he said.
Garnet Orange SC, in his closing speech for the defence, told the jury that what was said was an exchange by way of electronic messaging between two people hiding behind assumed identities. He said it was a private conversation that was not intended for onward use.
He told them the jury that they must determine whether words used in the skype conversation amount to child pornography.
He submitted that the two men were “egging each other on” and “raising the stakes” during the conversation. “These two men were engaged in obscene fantasy,” he said.
Mr Orange said that not once during Mulligan’s interviews did gardaí say “child porn”. He submitted that the prosecution had sought to “shoehorn” the case into this charge.
“Ultimately this is not pornography. This is a gross fantasy by someone who should know better,” he said.
Judge Patricia Ryan remanded Mulligan in custody for sentencing in November and thanked jury members for their service.