Sex offender sent lewd Snapchat to schoolgirl just hours after leaving prison, court told

Olivia Kelleher

A 51-year-old convicted sex offender, who described Snapchat as a “safe haven for paedophiles,” sent a lewd message to a schoolgirl on the mobile messaging app within three hours of being released from prison, a court has heard.

Gardaí said in evidence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court that Anthony Quigley of Roches Heights, Mitchelstown, Co Cork, also used WhatsApp to send a 16-year-old autistic boy a picture of his penis and two memes of adult porn.

Det Garda Dave Barry told Judge Sinead Behan that Quigley was released from the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise at 10:50am on September 17th, 2025.

He had been jailed for nine months the previous February for a series of offences including one incident where he had put his arm around a woman in her 60s and asked her if she wanted to have sex with him.

When he was released from custody in relation to this offence he got on a train back to Cork. When he arrived in Mitchelstown he charged his phone and at 2:02pm he sent a Snapchat message to a 16-year-old student in a Co Cork town.

Quigley sent her the lyrics to a song. However, he had altered them to make them sexual. His Snapchat account name was SusieLol and he had 800 followers. The offence was brought to the attention of gardaí and Quigley was detained for questioning.

He admitted using the Snapchat name Susie as a “decoy.” He told gardaí that Snapchat was a “safe haven for paedophiles.”

He said he had become friends with school children. Det Garda Barry said that Quigley informed them that he had infiltrated the group of school children after he was added by just one student on Snapchat. Quigley told gardaí that he “met one person (online) and that got me in the group.”

At the time he committed the offence he had received a ban from contacting any child under the age of 18 or from going within 50 metres of a school or such places where children gather.

This ban was imposed on Quigley in February of last year by Judge Dermot Sheehan at a sitting of the Central Criminal Court in the city.

Under the terms of the 15-year order he was also warned not to engage in any sexually explicit conversation with females or to take up employment that would give him access to children.

On Thursday afternoon, defence barrister John Devlin said that his client had made full admissions in relation to his offending behaviour. He said that his client had suffered a head injury in a crash and that this impaired his memory and speech. The crash occurred over 25 years ago.

Meanwhile, Det Garda Shane O’Donoghue detailed the offending behaviour of Quigley which occurred between the 10th and the 15th of February 2025 shortly before he went in to jail in relation to an other offence. During that time Quigley had made contact with an autistic teenager.

He sent the 16 year old two memes of adult porn and a picture of his penis. 214 messages were exchanged between the two with Quigley sending 84 of them. The exchanges occured on WhatsApp.

Meanwhile, Judge Sinead Behan said that she was very concerned that Quigley had started reoffending “at the very first opportunity” he got when he was released from custody in September 2025. She said that his behaviour was “extraordinary.”

She stressed that she needed to have a clear picture of what was causing Quigley to continuously reoffend. She ordered an updated psychiatric report and probation report and remanded Quigley in custody for sentencing on April 28th next.

Judge Behan said that it was important to obtain and understanding of how best to approach the matter “for the protection of society.” At one point during the hearing Quigley asked the Judge to “let him out on bail.” Judge Behan told him that there was “no question of you getting out on bail.”

Det Garda Barry gave the judge an outline of the previous offences of the accused. He received his first conviction in 2003 for making nuisance calls.

Quigley has 68 previous convictions and has appeared before the Central Criminal Court, the Circuit Criminal Court, and the District court.

Of those convictions four are for sexual assault. He has 13 convictions for harassment or stalking, 12 for sending indecent messages or telephone communications, and three for hoax phone calls. The remainder are for public order or traffic offences.

Quigley has never had a job. He is in receipt of disability allowance and lives with his elderly parents.

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