Gardai are ‘looking into’ convicted paedophile Declan Power - who this week was sentenced to two years and four months in the UK for child grooming offences - we can reveal.
On Wednesday, a number of members of the force attended the pervert’s now vacant Co Louth farmhouse property - where he purposely built an eight-foot fence in recent weeks to prevent neighbours from becoming suspicious of his activities- and a search took place.
Gardai spent a number of hours at the property on Commons Road in Dromiskin. It is not known whether items were removed from the property.
READ MORE: Louth locals 'sick to stomach' as paedo neighbour exposed as sicko who built huge fence to hide girl
However, gardai confirmed the search took place and also confirmed they are aware of Power’s conviction in the UK.
In a statement to this paper, gardai said: “An Garda Siochana is aware of a conviction against an Irish National in the UK this week.”
They also confirmed they are in contact with the UK authorities and have no further comment at this time.
We can also exclusively reveal Power’s fake Facebook profile page that he used to initiate contact with the 13-year-old girl ‘Charlotte’ sending her sexual and vile messages. Unbeknown to him, the ‘Charlotte’ was actually a decoy from a paedophile hunting group which trapped him.
Power used the pseudonym ‘Simon Templar’, the fictional character known as The Saint, but reverted to his own name by the time he travelled to Britain.
His fake Facebook page shows he has 18 friends including his own real Facebook profile and he used his own image as the profile picture.
The page shows he updated his profile picture on July 20, 2021 - a year prior to being nabbed by the paedophile hunting group. No other activity was shown on the page.
On Wednesday, we revealed how news of Power’s depraved criminal activities caused “total shock” among residents of the village of Dromiskin.
Horrified locals expressed their shock that the sick predator has lived amongst them and do not want the “creepy f**king b**tard” returning to their village when he is released from prison in the UK.
Power had flown to the UK on July 14 with the intention of abducting and having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
The sicko, who has lived in Dromiskin for the past six years, was trapped by a paedophile hunter group who set up a fake Facebook profile of a 13-year-old girl called ‘Charlotte’ who was contacted by Power.
He sent the ‘girl’ vile and sexual messages telling her he would have sex with her when her mother was not at home.
Chat logs showed he had told her she would have to disguise herself by dyeing her hair blond and would have to remain in his home to avoid detection.
Power was caught carrying condoms in his luggage and had return tickets for himself and the girl to Ireland two days later when he was caught by the paedo-hunting group.
We also revealed photos of Power’s farmhouse property - which he purchased in 2016 - showing the eight-foot high wooden fence he had recently built to prevent neighbours from becoming suspicious of his activities if he had managed to abduct the ‘girl’ to his home, which was referred to at the sentencing hearing.
The large fence, which was described by some locals as ‘an eyesore’, also had a large padlock at the gated part.
On Monday at Exeter Crown Court he admitted attempted sexual communications with a child and attempting to meet a child after grooming. He claimed he arranged to meet the girl when he was very isolated.
His defence barrister told the court: “It seems he acted out a fantasy about a sort of domestic situation which he sought to achieve.”
Power was sentenced to two years and four months in the UK. However, he will only have to serve half of this sentence and is likely to be released by October 2023.
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