DETECTIVES investigating the sexual abuse of a child by several men he met on the internet set up an elaborate 'honey trap' to catch one of the people involved.

Paul Farrell (44), of Eaton Green, Rathcoole, Co Dublin, was last week given a two-year suspended sentence for possession of child porn images on his laptop. He was the third man convicted in relation to a major probe launched when it emerged that a 14-year-old from north Dublin arranged to meet several men for sex he contacted on an international gay website in 2007.

Two other men, a garda and a civil servant – who were exchanging emails and arranging to meet up with the teenager to have sex – were not charged with soliciting the child for sex because legislation outlawing the sexual 'grooming' of children was not in existence at that time. The garda has since been discharged. Farrell admitted to officers that he had "some sexual contact" with the teenager but escaped charges in relation to this as the boy was due to turn 15 within days of the sexual contact – at age 15 it is legal for teenagers to engage in some sexual activity.

The victim began surfing gaydar.com in 2007. He later met up with two men and had sex with them at different locations in Dublin. Patrick Dunleavy (42), an actor and teacher from Sherrard Street Lower, Dublin, pleaded guilty to one charge of engaging in a sexual act and was sentenced to two years in prison last year.

Thomas Rogers (45) a former courier, of St Catherine's Avenue, Rush, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to two charges of engaging in a sexual act with the boy and was also given a two-year prison sentence.

The boy's mother alerted gardaí after she found suggestive messages from men and nude pictures of her son on his phone. In a bid to catch Farrell when detectives established that he had met with the child and engaged in sexual acts, gardaí set up a fake profile on the website and pretended to be a teenage boy wanting to meet the 44-year-old for sex. Farrell was careful to only converse from internet cafés so he could not be traced. He also gave detectives his mobile number, which was not registered so he could not be tracked down. He arranged to meet up with the garda who he thought was the teenage boy on a couple of occasions but cancelled each time at the last minute.

Eventually, he mentioned in online conversations with gardaí that it was the anniversary of his father's death. The 14-year-old was also able to recall the make of the car the man drove. Detectives checked how many men had died on that date as well as the makes of vehicles registered to the sons of the dead men.

This led detectives to carry out surveillance on certain men, including Farrell. They pulled his car over in Dublin's North Wall and another garda then telephoned Farrell's mobile phone. It rang in the car despite the 44-year-old's best efforts to switch it off. Detectives then arrested him.

Gardaí later raided Farrell's house and found images of naked and partially naked males aged between 14 and 16. He had purchased them from a gay website using his credit card. He claimed in court that he believed the website's disclaimer to be true but admitted the boys looked younger than 18. "We eventually found him – it was a major sting operation," said a garda source.

In total, gardaí questioned 12 men during an extensive investigation into the sexual abuse of the 14-year-old. "One French man met up with the boy but as soon as he saw him he said, 'you're jailbait, no way,' and walked away. This boy was quite clearly a young teenager – there is no way the men who had sex with him could have been in any doubt about his age," added the source.