Double Murderer Receives Additional Sentence for Illicit Phone Use and Sexual Communication

An individual convicted of double murder received an additional 22-month sentence after engaging in a sexual conversation with someone he believed to be an underage girl. Eoin O’Toole was apprehended by a paedophile-hunting organization after he utilized a contraband mobile phone to transmit images of his genitals from North Sea Camp, an open correctional facility situated close to Boston. Lincoln Crown Court was informed that the 58-year-old, who was serving a life sentence, acquired a mobile phone from an Asda supermarket in January during a period of temporary licence release. The court was further informed that he subsequently used the device the following month to participate in sexual discussions with a Facebook user he believed to be 14 years old. Tom Heath, the prosecutor, stated that O’Toole initially provided the alias Danny Cardiff, but subsequently admitted his true identity and his incarceration for murder. Mr. Heath reported that O’Toole engaged in progressively sexualized exchanges with the user, who was, in fact, a decoy operating on behalf of the paedophile-hunting group. In the course of these conversations, he requested photographs, misrepresented his age, and mentioned having “angry sex” with his former girlfriend. Prison authorities received an alert from the group on 15 February, following O’Toole’s transmission of two photographs depicting himself naked from the waist down. The mobile phone was discovered during a subsequent search of his cell. O’Toole had been sentenced to life imprisonment at Sheffield Crown Court in December 1991 for the murders of his grandmother, Mary Goodrich, aged 92, and her sister, Jessie Thomas, aged 89, which he committed by setting their residence ablaze. The court was informed that O’Toole, originally known as Ian Kentzer, perpetrated the murders to conceal the theft of over £30,000, money he had stolen to finance his cocaine addiction and sustain his struggling video business. He was also noted to have nine prior convictions for more than 20 offenses, among them gross indecency and sexual activity with an underage girl in 1990. O’Toole, who has since been transferred back to a higher security prison under closed conditions, pleaded guilty to two counts: conveying a listed item into prison and attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child. Beyond his custodial sentence, he was also mandated to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life. During the sentencing, Judge Philip Head stated his conviction that O’Toole disclosed his history as a murderer with the intent to impress the other individual. The judge further commented that the reappearance of sexual conduct was “a very worrying sign.” He concluded by adding, “You do pose a danger to, particularly young females.”