This is the paedophile cop who got a job with the same council that runs the leisure centre where he was caught photographing schoolgirls getting changed.
Shamed pervert William McGonigle, who was sacked after he was convicted of making indecent images of kids, has been working for a local council as a binman for more than a year.
Itcan be revealed the 55-year-old started off driving a bin lorry in 2023 but had to be switched to a new role after he crashed the truck, costing thousands of pounds worth of damage.
We snapped the creepy father of five this week emptying bins in Lurgan under no supervision and as unsuspecting members of the public passed by.
Ironically he’s driving a bin truck known as a ‘cage’ – something he never suffered for snapping kids, as a judge let him go without a single day in jail.
Incredibly, Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon (ABC) Council gave the sick pervert a job last year despite the fact he committed some of his disgusting crimes at council-run Banbridge Leisure Centre after he was caught with his camera snapping female children in the changing rooms.
William McGonigle emptying bins in Lurgan
He was later convicted of 10 counts of making indecent photographs of a child and one count of attempting to make such images.
Last night the Council said they had, “Adhered to comprehensive Safeguarding Policies and Procedures.”
Controversially, McGonigle didn’t serve a single day in prison and he was brought back to court after he was accused of flouting his sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) by having contact with children.
The council has come under fire for giving McGonigle the job.
We can reveal outraged employees refused to work alongside McGonigle and some were disciplined for saying they wouldn’t share a bin lorry with him.
“Nobody could believe the council gave him the job,” said a council source. “Someone recognised him and it spread like wildfire that we had a bloody paedo working with us.
“Apparently he was one of three people interviewed for the job – but it was decided to give it to a paedophile.
“Nobody wanted to spend their days sitting beside someone who tried to take pictures of wee girls getting undressed, so loads of people went on holiday or went off on the sick.
“The council told people they had to work with them or they would be disciplined.
“In the end up the only way the council would let you off from working with him was if you said you had been the victim of a sex offence or if you had someone in the family who was and the thought of working with someone like him was too upsetting.
“The management view was that he’s done his crime, he’s done his time so-to-speak so he should be entitled to have a job — but it was pointed out that if management thinks like that then why not give him a job in the council offices — see if they want to work with him.
“The council yards have guys who did things during the Troubles but when you come to things like this it’s different. He’s given a uniform like everyone else and it brings that uniform and the council into disrepute.”
In October 2023, not long after he started the job, McGonigle crashed the lorry he was driving at a commercial waste management premises in Portadown, where he was unloading rubbish collected for ABC Council.
A source told the Sunday World: “He was the driver of the lorry and all he had to do was reverse it into the bay, drop off the rubbish and drive out again but on the way out he hit the bay door.
“The aftermath was caught on video and you can see there’s damage done to the lorry and the bay.
“He would have been on his six-month probation period then, so the council could have got rid then but instead they kept him on and later moved him into a road sweeper and now he drives a cage on his own – going round emptying street bins.”
But sources at the council even say his switch to driving a road sweeper caused anger.
“There were four road sweepers working in the Armagh area and suddenly one was moved to Lurgan so McGonigle could use it. The union kicked off about it because there was no discussion about it.
“He’s been ostracised completely and now he’s working alone on a cage just emptying bins. There was talk of him being moved up to Banbridge but they decided against it because they were worried it would just cause more trouble with employees refusing to work with him so the bin runs wouldn’t get done.”
Former cop William McGonigle emptying bins in Lurgan
A spokesperson for Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council told the Sunday World last night: “The council refrains from discussing internal staffing matters; however, it has adhered to comprehensive Safeguarding Policies and Procedures.”
McGonigle pleaded guilty to the indecent image charges at Newry Crown Court in 2008 and was sentenced to just three years’ probation.
The case sent shockwaves through the Tandragee community where McGonigle had been residing at the time of his arrest.
“He is within walking distance of a school and lives in the middle of an estate where there are many young children and it is making the families there very nervous,” said one Tandragee resident at the time.
During his trial last he was ordered by the court to reside at PSNI Headquarters as part of his bail conditions.
But it emerged afterwards McGonigle had been flouting this ruling by freely moving between three different addresses – two homes in County Armagh as well as a £40,000 mobile home in Kilkeel.
After he was given three years’ probation, Judge Norman Lockie said he had “decided, after much anxious thought and reflection, that the option of an immediate custodial sentence would not, by itself, serve to safeguard children” from McGonigle from reoffending.
He added the best way “to achieve that essential objective” was that McGonigle be given the opportunity to fully engage in a treatment and rehabilitation programme for sex offenders.
And he concluded: “The public can be assured by me this is not an easy option” and nor was it simply “a slap on the wrist”.
But the sex offender was back in front of a different judge a few months later after it was alleged in court that on the December 25, 2008, McGonigle breached his SOPO by being in contact with children.
In 2009 theSunday World reported how McGonigle had been told to stay away from a caravan park in Co. Down.
Speaking to this paper at the time, witnesses claimed McGonigle – before the truth about his crimes emerged in court – used to skulk round the area with a camera taking pictures of kids.
Until he pleaded guilty, his identity was protected by a reporting restriction which meant he was able to live at the caravan park without anyone knowing what he had been accused of.
But campers managed to have him removed from the site after the truth emerged in court.
One caravan owner told the Sunday World people were concerned that he might come back.
“McGonigle is really arrogant and we’re worried he will be back this summer,” they told us.
“Like I say, he was very arrogant and maybe thought he was going to get off lightly but I had a run-in with him once when he brought a dog to his caravan and wouldn’t stop barking all night.
“He was put in here to live last summer, which nobody could believe because putting a pervert like that into a campsite is like allowing a kid to live in a sweet shop.
“We didn’t know at the time exactly what he had done because he hadn’t pleaded guilty by then but when it all came out there was uproar and he was made to leave a few days later.
“While he was living up there he used to walk about with a big camera round his neck. It had a massive zoom lens on it and he had a laptop as well.
“We don’t want him back here – it’s as simple as that.
“Put it this way, I’d rather have Johnny Adair in the next caravan than a kiddie pervert like McGonigle.”