EXCLUSIVE | 

Hotelier tried to buy off paedo son’s victim with €50k after exiting bankruptcy

Michael Cooney’s son Cian (37) engaged in multiple acts of defilement, sexual exploitation and grooming of a schoolgirl (13)

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The Longford ex-hotelier who unsuccessfully tried to buy off a family with €50,000 to drop a criminal complaint against his paedophile son did so just two years after exiting bankruptcy.

Well-known businessman Michael Cooney, whose wife had a €3m debt largely written off for just €1,600 at the time of his offending, refused to talk to the Sunday World about trying to silence his son’s victim when we approached him outside his former hotel in Ballymahon last week.

Cooney, from Mostrim Road, Ballymahon, was recently convicted of menacing a witness in an attempt to pervert the court of justice in relation to a criminal complaint against his paedophile son Cian (37), who engaged in multiple acts of defilement, sexual exploitation and grooming of a 13-year-old schoolgirl.

Cian Cooney, who worked as a teacher in Dublin when he carried out the offences, is currently serving a five-year jail sentence after being convicted in 2021.

His father Michael, who is well-known in business and GAA circles in the midlands, appeared in Longford Circuit Court earlier this month where he pleaded guilty to menacing a witness in the case.

Michael Cooney told the victim’s mother he would “do anything for his son and had nothing to lose” as he tried to buy the family’s silence to protect his paedophile son from being exposed.

He made persistent efforts over a three month period to buy off the family, causing them great stress and worry.

He received a two-and-a-half year suspended sentence.

Michael Cooney came out of Cooney’s Hotel in Ballymahon when the Sunday World approached him for comment this week.

He refused to answer any questions and turned away from our reporter before making his way back into the hotel at speed.

He ran the hotel for several years but announced last year that he was selling it as he wanted to retire. The hotel is currently listed as sale agreed on property websites.

A legal representative of Cooney later wrote to the Sunday World to say he currently has no involvement in the establishment known as Cooney’s Hotel.

The hotel made national headlines in September 2020 when Michael Cooney said he was devastated after someone caused more than €20,000 of damage by smashing stained glassed windows at the hotel.

The culprit was later convicted and paid €1,100 in compensation to Michael Cooney, and was fined €250.

Michael Cooney and his family have had business and property interests in the town for decades and opened the first supermarket in Ballymahon, which they ran for 20 years.

The hotel sponsored the local GAA club for years and Cooney is listed as a board delegate on the club’s executive committee

In her victim impact statement, the mother of the girl groomed by Cian Cooney said Michael Cooney’s actions caused a lot of stress for her family.

“People showed up to my house offering money and attempted to make me feel guilt and shame. It caused a lot of anxiety and worry. It was an attempt to intimidate, to make me feel my family was less than him.”

The Longford Leader reported that Cooney handed in an apology to court where he said: “I have let myself, my family and my county down.”

In 2019, at the same time Cooney was offering €50,000 to the victim’s family, his wife and business partner Josephine Cooney had debts of €3m largely written off after agreeing to pay €1,600 as part of a personal insolvency arrangement.

She made headlines when she was described in court as a hotel receptionist with a €3m debt.

Unlike his wife, Michael Cooney had gone bankrupt but had his bankruptcy discharged in 2017. The Revenue Commissioners had secured judgements against him for amounts totalling more than €300,000 before his bankruptcy.

He was also fined on three occasions for failing to declare income tax and failure to hold a liquor licence while serving alcohol.

Cian Cooney was sentenced to six and a half years in jail with the final 18 months suspended in 2021 after he pleaded guilty to defilement, sexual exploitation and grooming of a 13-year-old girl in 2013.