Two Wexford brothers serving time in separate US prisons for child sex offences

David Butler was sentenced to five years in prison by Judge Claude M. Hilton in a United States District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, on June 5, at which time his older brother Frank was before the courts in Florida having exchanged a string of lewd messages and travelled to meet what he believed was a 13 year-old child for sex.

Frank Butler was sentenced to three and a half years in Florida State Prison in August, while David Butler is currently serving a five-year sentence at FCI Allenwood, a low-security prison in Pennsylvania, where he is scheduled for release on October 22, 2027.

Both men come from a well-respected Wexford town family and are former students of St Peter’s College. They are the sons of the late Frank (FX) Butler, who passed away in 2008, and Noreen Butler who died in September of last year, aged 93.

Both parents were extremely highly thought of in their local community, were deeply engrained in their local parish of Clonard and were involved in numerous philanthropic endeavours and community organisations.

David Butler first came to the attention of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) back in July of 2019 when they received information from a social media application that a user, believed to be the defendant, had uploaded an image file containing suspected child sex abuse images into a chat. The image was uploaded from a device at Butler’s Washington DC residence.

A finance manager for the Washington National Opera at the prestigious Kennedy Centre for Performing Arts, David Butler’s online activities at this point began to come to the attention of the authorities.

Around September 2021 Homeland Security were again notified of suspected child sexual abuse images being uploaded from David Butler’s residence.

It was while returning to the US from a trip home to Ireland on October 6 of 2021 that HSI swooped on the defendant and he was arrested at Dulles International Airport in Virginia.

When confronted by HSI agents, Butler admitted using a social media app where he received images that he would regard as child sexual abuse images. He further admitted to being a member of a group on the social media app in which other unknown members posted child sexual abuse images.

He conceded that he had used the Samsung phone in his possession to access child sexual abuse images as recently as September 2021 and stated that viewing the material was “a fantasy/role play thing”.

Following a forensic examination of Butler’s phone, more than 400 image files and three video files depicting horrific child abuse images were uncovered. The material depicted minors, many under the age of 12, in various states of undress and engaging in sexual acts and at one point, forensic examination revealed, the Wexford man had searched for “six-year-old bikini hottie”.

On April 20 of 2022, law enforcement agents executed a federal search warrant on David Butler’s Washington DC home. Multiple electronic devices were seized including a Dell laptop which again contained material involving minors performing sexual acts.

Butler lodged a guilty plea to the charge, which carries a minimum mandatory sentence of five years, back in February of this year. Given regards to his age and clean record, his attorney sought the leniency of the court.

Character references were presented to the court from David Butler’s wife Katherine, his former pastor Rev Gary Studiniewski and his current priest Fr Brendan Glasgow Junior.

In her statement, Butler’s wife Katherine said that David had “worked tirelessly” over their married lives to support the family and provide opportunities for their children. She stated that he had been a “tenacious advocate” for their son, who has significant special needs, and had encouraged their daughters in all of their endeavours including “attending hours of music lessons every weekend, helping them practice and prepare for auditions and exams”.

She stated that “David organised carpools to ferry our daughters and friends back and forth for long evening and weekend rehearsals and performances, be they at the Kennedy Centre, Strathmore Music Centre, or the National Cathedral” and organised “camping trips, hiking, day trips to the beach or longer sightseeing visits to New York, London or Amsterdam”.

She spoke of his involvement with the church and his local community before moving onto the criminal charge.

“David and I have had several conversations concerning the criminal charge to which he has pleaded guilty and to which he admits complete responsibility,” she said. “He has expressed to me, on many occasions, how much he utterly regrets what he did, and how he wishes he had sought help for an addiction that had spiralled out of his control.

“He has also honestly accepted that he is suffering from a chronic addiction to alcohol. Since December 2021, he has taken steps to address this addiction and has been fully committed to maintaining complete sobriety.

“David has also been attending specialized counselling from a sex therapist and participates in a weekly group therapy session for men struggling with different types of sexual addiction. David recognizes the immense consequences of his actions and accepts full culpability.”

While the pair are currently said to be going through the process of divorce, Ms Butler added: “I have forgiven David, and greatly hope for his sake and for the sake of our autistic son that the court will show him mercy with respect to imprisonment.”

His former pastor Gary Studiniewski described Butler as “a humble family man and community servant” while Fr Brendan Glasgow described him as “a faithful person” who “puts that faith into practice”.

Butler was deemed to be at “low risk” of recidivism and was said to be “remorseful and apologetic of his actions”. It was also stated that he was “acutely aware of how the consequences of his behaviour are now impacting his wife and children and he is making progress in learning the origins and triggers for his pornography use”.

Concluding, Butler’s attorney Cary Citronberg stated that “the defendant has already been greatly punished. He lost his job of two decades, and at nearly 60 years old, and given the nature of the charges, he faces highly uncertain prospects of future employment and significant uncertainty upon release.

“He is losing his wife and family, who have left him as a result of this case. His life has been decimated. These punishments, in addition to 5 years of imprisonment, are more than is necessary to achieve the goals of sentencing.”

Judge Claude M Hilton was inclined to agree. Taking all of the circumstances into account, he handed David Butler the minimum sentence of 60 months, or five years, in prison. When his time is served, he will be placed on supervised release for a term of ten years.

For their part, The Kennedy Centre confirmed that David Butler was a former employee up to August of 2022 and he worked as a finance manager for the Washington National Opera. They issued a statement, which said:

“Upon learning about the arrest and subsequent charges, David Butler’s employment was immediately terminated, as of August 1, 2022. As a Finance Manager at the Washington National Opera, this individual’s job responsibilities did not involve any contact with minors. Further inquiries should be directed to the U.S. Department of Justice.”