Overview
- McDonagh, sentenced Friday at Drogheda Circuit Court to five years and three months with the final three months suspended, pleaded guilty to deception after inducing repeated transfers in 2024.
- He met the woman at her husband's wake in September 2023 and, after she believed they were a couple by January 2024, he sought money for a car, family funerals, debts to “dangerous people,” and supposed cancer care.
- He promised repayment from an insurance claim that did not exist, and his wife later told the victim the family had taken holidays funded by the transfers, including a Barcelona trip during a €17,000 “treatment” request in July 2024.
- Gardaí arrested him at Dublin Airport in February 2025 before a one‑way flight to Manchester, and investigators said his bank accounts were empty with none of the victim's approximately €142,000 recovered.
- The victim reports severe anxiety, loss of work, and financial strain caring for her young daughter, and the judge said the prolonged deception was serious and warranted prison time.