RTÉ Philharmonic Choir Christian singer admits uploading child abuse videos

A broadcaster and singer with the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir has confessed to uploading videos of abused children.

ornstill Christian John Broderick traveled the globe with the world-renowned choir before turning to broadcasting with the Dublin-based UCB (United Christian Broadcasters).

He narrowly escaped prison and Newry Crown Court heard a pastor had offered him a job in a church.

He is also recorded in 2017 telling a Co Armagh church congregation from the pulpit how he turned his back on a life of drugs and alcohol after being ‘saved’ by Jesus Christ.

During the “testimony” service, Broderick told the audience that after befriending a judge in the choir, God said to him in saving him, “I will place you next to the judges.”

Broderick has made several appearances before a Crown Court judge in Newry for uploading despicable images of child abuse.

During the same testimony, Broderick, who is now prohibited from having any unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18, talks about going to Africa to work with vulnerable children.

Broderick spent several years working for United Christian Broadcasters as a radio presenter and regularly interviewed prominent Christians about their experience with God.

Dungannon’s 53-year-old backing vocalist Co Tyrone wouldn’t speak when a reporter called on his door asking about his crimes.

For we can reveal Broderick was disgraced after it emerged he had uploaded images and videos described in court as ‘Category A’.

Category A is the court’s definition of the most serious sexual activity and the court was told that Broderick had uploaded 11 category A videos.

Broderick, from Dublin, recently pleaded guilty at Newry Crown Court to eight counts of creating indecent images of a child on August 21, 2019.

He also pleaded guilty to another count of possessing indecent images of children.

However, when a reporter called the broadcaster who once ran a radio show interviewing people about how they found God, he wasn’t keen on telling his story.

The gospel singer refused to answer the door and briefly addressed the reporter through his porch window, but refused to answer questions and quickly retreated upstairs.

A defense lawyer has explained how Broderick suffered ‘harrowing incidents’ when he was younger and left school illiterate, went back to school and got a degree in design.

He added that Broderick joined the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir and traveled the world and started his own business before losing it.

He said the offense occurred four months after Broderick, who had a clean criminal record, lost his mother and the bereavement – ​​coupled with a return to drinking – contributed to his offence.

Judge Peter Irvine QC took a lenient view of Broderick’s behavior and, after reading a number of pre-sentence reports, including one from a psychiatrist, decided not to send him to jail.

Instead, he felt he could be better rehabilitated with the treatment and supervision that probation could provide and gave him a two-year probation order and ordered him to undergo a sexual offense prevention order.

However, addressing Broderick, Mr Justice Irvine said: “It must always be remembered when considering an offense of this nature that at the root of this offense is the fact that children must be abused for that these images are available.

“And people like the defendant who download and view, for whatever purpose, these types of images should be seen as people who encourage this type of behavior.”

He went on to say that after considering all the facts of the case, combined with his initial guilty pleas, he felt an immediate custodial sentence was unnecessary.

With the Probation Board suggesting that he could re-offend if he did not receive certain treatment, the judge considered that it was in the interest of the defendant and the public that he be supervised and receive the necessary treatment.

When asked if he had consented to two years’ probation, Broderick replied, “I do your honor”.

And he repeated those words when asked if he understood he would be brought back for a “very different kind of sentencing” if he didn’t comply with the order.

The judge also said a sexual offense prevention order was needed to protect the public and would last for five years and that offending materials and equipment would be destroyed.

In 2017, Broderick, who was born a Catholic, gave his born-again Christian “testimony” to Annaghmore Gospel Mission in County Armagh.

During it, he explained how after his life got out of control and he became a drug addict, God came into his life and saved him.

He says he crossed the border to live in Northern Ireland in the early 90s when the rave scene was just getting started.

He says he became a drug addict, stole from his own parents and took just about every drug for seven or eight years until he attempted suicide by crashing his car into a lamppost.

That’s when he says God stepped in and told him his plans for him were “always good, never bad” and he went on a journey with God.

He says the consequence was that he returned to university to graduate and joined the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir.

“I traveled the world with the biggest choir in Europe, singing in front of judges, I ended up sitting next to a judge and that’s what the Lord told me ago 17 years old: ‘I will sit you next to the judges, I will give you influence’.

“It was this judge who paid me to go to Africa to work with children who were former child soldiers.”

He also said he became a Christian radio presenter because God asked him to and God “wasn’t done” with him.

He also claims God had shown him his plans for Ireland and the UK – “I’m privileged to be here to see it,” he said at the time.