Brian McConaghy

{{Short description|Forensic scientist}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Brian McConaghy

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| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1963}}

| birth_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK

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| citizenship = Canadian

| nationality = Canadian

| fields = Forensic science

| workplaces = Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Vancouver Forensic Laboratory
Ratanak International

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| known_for = Founding Ratanak International

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Brian McConaghy (born 1963) is the founder of Ratanak International and a former Canadian forensic scientist who left the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in order to dedicate all his energies to ending child abuse and human trafficking in Cambodia.{{Cite journal|journal=Winnipeg Free Press|author=Melissa Martin|title=Prayer breakfast hears horror of sexual slavery in Cambodia|date=April 24, 2011|url=http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/prayer-breakfast-hears-horror-of-sexual-slavery-in-cambodia-120562869.html|access-date=August 21, 2012}} He had already founded Ratanak International,{{cite web|title=Profile: Brian McConaghy|url=https://www.bcmag.ca/profile-brian-mcconaghy/|website=British Columbia Magazine|access-date=11 April 2018|date=9 September 2016}} in 1989, a Christian charity dedicated to helping the people of Cambodia rebuild their country that for decades had been torn apart by civil war, revolution and genocide. From 1990 onwards McConaghy and Ratanak partnered on projects that built clinics, hospitals and schools, opened orphanages, provided shelters for the elderly and AIDS victims and ran and initiated emergency food distribution programs in response to droughts and flooding in Cambodia. In 2004, these relief projects continued, yet Ratanak's work also took on a whole new dimension by beginning to work on the front lines in Cambodia on projects that rescue and rehabilitate children sold into sexual slavery.{{Cite journal|journal=The Vancouver Sun|title=Former RCMP investigator a beacon for change: Brian McConaghy founded Vancouver-based Ratanak International, which helps rescue and educate former sex slaves|author=Daphne Bramham|date=March 23, 2012|url=https://vancouversun.com/news/sextourism/Part+Three+Former+RCMP+investigator+beacon+change+with+video/6350267/story.html|access-date=August 21, 2012}}

McConaghy named the organization Ratanak, which means 'precious gem' in Khmer, after he watched an 11-month-old Cambodian baby called Ratanak die because of a basic lack of medical aid in John Pilger's documentary film Cambodia Year Ten.{{Cite book|title=Distant Voices|author=John Pilger|author-link=John Pilger|publisher=Random House|year=2010|isbn=978-1407086378}} Since watching this video McConaghy and Ratanak have been dedicated to preventing such needless suffering and death in Cambodia.

McConaghy grew up in Northern Ireland and his family emigrated to Canada in 1978. He used to work for the Vancouver Forensic Laboratory as a firearm and tool-mark examination specialist.{{Cite book|page=549|title=On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women|author=Stevie Cameron|publisher=Random House|year=2011|isbn=978-0676975857}} After founding Ratanak International, he continued to help the RCMP as a consultant, providing them with crucial information about the identity of the child sexual abuse victims in the case of Donald Bakker.{{Cite book|title=The Johns: Sex for Sale and the Men Who Buy It|author=Victor Malarek|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing|year=2011|isbn=978-1611450125}} He also did forensic work on the women murdered by Robert Pickton,{{Cite book|title=The Devil's Dozen: How Cutting-Edge Forensics Took Down 12 Notorious Serial Killers|author=Katherine M. Ramsland|publisher=Penguin Books|year=2009|isbn=978-0425226032}} testifying that Andrea Joesbury, Sereena Abotsway, and Mona Wilson had all been decapitated with a reciprocating saw.{{Cite journal|journal=The Vancouver Sun|title=Plastic skull used in Pickton testimony|date=May 9, 2007|url=http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=3c7786b3-117b-4db6-8abd-a1e9d619603d&k=77416|access-date=September 14, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924140021/http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=3c7786b3-117b-4db6-8abd-a1e9d619603d&k=77416|archive-date=September 24, 2015}} McConaghy was the guest speaker at the 2011 Manitoba Prayer Breakfast.{{Cite journal|journal=Winnipeg Free Press|title=Faith briefs|date=April 23, 2011|url=http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/faith/faith-briefs-120533349.html|access-date=September 14, 2012}} He lives in Vancouver with his wife and two children, both adopted from Cambodia.