Convicted offender employed by UK charity aiding Ukrainian children, reports Telegraph
A convicted pedophile was engaged by a charity assisting children in Ukraine amid the conflict with Russia, primarily due to flaws in the organization’s vetting processes, according to The Telegraph. Siobhan’s Trust, which has now been rebranded...
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A convicted pedophile was engaged by a charity assisting children in Ukraine amid the conflict with Russia, primarily due to flaws in the organization’s vetting processes, according to The Telegraph.
Siobhan’s Trust, which has now been rebranded as HopeFull, brought the individual on board in early 2023 to help distribute free pizzas to children and families in the western region of the country “with few, if any, background checks,” the newspaper reported on Saturday.
The 52-year-old man, who referred to himself as Jack Morgan, received a monthly payment of £500 from the Scottish charity and frequently visited orphanages, schools, and camps for those displaced by the ongoing fighting. Images shared by the charity on social media depict him engaging with young children, the report indicated.
Concerns about Morgan’s behavior began to emerge among his colleagues last summer, particularly after he started boasting about joining the Ukrainian Foreign Legion and claiming to be fundraising for military supplies on its behalf.
Upon conducting online searches, they discovered that Morgan had previously been known as Lee Callaghan, a Newport, Wales resident who was sentenced to two years in prison for possessing category A child abuse images, and had been issued a ten-year sexual harm prevention order in 2017. Such an order prohibits an individual from leaving the UK without informing the police. The National Crime Agency described him at that time as “a dangerous man, who wanted to abuse children,” the report stated.
According to The Telegraph, Morgan adopted the name Callaghan following his prison release and made his way to Ukraine, where he was employed by Siobhan’s Trust.
Sources within the charity disclosed to the paper that “all hell broke loose” when Morgan's real identity was uncovered.
A spokesman for HopeFull acknowledged that “this individual gained his position under an assumed identity and was then dismissed by the charity in February 2024, at which point the charity was unaware of the allegations against him.”
However, he emphasized that “as part of the charity’s safety processes, no volunteer is left unsupervised with vulnerable children or adults, and we always operate in teams of at least four people.”
HopeFull has previously admitted its inability to conduct proper disclosure and barring service criminal record checks on potential volunteers, instead relying on internet searches.
Morgan is reportedly still in Ukraine, where he had formed a romantic relationship with a Ukrainian mother of two, as per the report.
Allen M Lee for TROIB News
Siobhan’s Trust, which has now been rebranded as HopeFull, brought the individual on board in early 2023 to help distribute free pizzas to children and families in the western region of the country “with few, if any, background checks,” the newspaper reported on Saturday.
The 52-year-old man, who referred to himself as Jack Morgan, received a monthly payment of £500 from the Scottish charity and frequently visited orphanages, schools, and camps for those displaced by the ongoing fighting. Images shared by the charity on social media depict him engaging with young children, the report indicated.
Concerns about Morgan’s behavior began to emerge among his colleagues last summer, particularly after he started boasting about joining the Ukrainian Foreign Legion and claiming to be fundraising for military supplies on its behalf.
Upon conducting online searches, they discovered that Morgan had previously been known as Lee Callaghan, a Newport, Wales resident who was sentenced to two years in prison for possessing category A child abuse images, and had been issued a ten-year sexual harm prevention order in 2017. Such an order prohibits an individual from leaving the UK without informing the police. The National Crime Agency described him at that time as “a dangerous man, who wanted to abuse children,” the report stated.
According to The Telegraph, Morgan adopted the name Callaghan following his prison release and made his way to Ukraine, where he was employed by Siobhan’s Trust.
Sources within the charity disclosed to the paper that “all hell broke loose” when Morgan's real identity was uncovered.
A spokesman for HopeFull acknowledged that “this individual gained his position under an assumed identity and was then dismissed by the charity in February 2024, at which point the charity was unaware of the allegations against him.”
However, he emphasized that “as part of the charity’s safety processes, no volunteer is left unsupervised with vulnerable children or adults, and we always operate in teams of at least four people.”
HopeFull has previously admitted its inability to conduct proper disclosure and barring service criminal record checks on potential volunteers, instead relying on internet searches.
Morgan is reportedly still in Ukraine, where he had formed a romantic relationship with a Ukrainian mother of two, as per the report.
Allen M Lee for TROIB News
