A man has been jailed for 15 months after he was caught with over 28,000 images of child sex abuse.
Charles Dwan’s (66) home was searched after gardaí were alerted to the fact that a certain IP address had accessed images and videos of child sex abuse.
Two devices were seized during the search which led to the discovery of 2,247 images and 28 videos on one device and 26,095 images and 36 videos on the second device.
The court heard that the images on the second device all fell into the explicit category which involves children witnessing or engaging in sexual activity however 26,000 of these 26,095 images were animations.
The other device had around 1,400 explicit images and 800 animations.
Dwan of Coach House Square, Ballinteer, Dublin 16 came forward to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on signed pleas of guilty from the District Court. He admitted possession of the images at his home on February 2nd, 2018.
The images and videos had been downloaded between September 4th, 2014 and February 2nd, 2018.
Siobhán Ní Chúlacháin BL, prosecuting, said that Dwan admitted to gardaí that he had looked for, downloaded and viewed the images. He apologised to all or any of the children who may have been harmed in the creation of these images.
Garda attention
It was accepted that there was no suggestion “in relation to contact offending” in the case. Nor did he pay for any of the images. He has not come to garda attention before or since.
Philipp Rahn SC, defending, handed in a number of references to the court, including one from Dwan’s wife of 43 years and his two adult sons.
They described Dwan as a family orientated man who is dedicated to his sons, parents, in-laws and extended family.
His wife wrote that she had been shocked by what has happened and that it had a devastating impact on the family.
A letter from his GP outlined Dwan’s mental health history, which involved two inpatient stays in St John of God’s.
He also has a significant cardiac history, counsel said. A psychological report concluded that Dwan was at a low risk of re-offending and had insight into his offending.
Judge Martin Nolan accepted that a good number of the images were animation style but said the number of images and the fact that he downloaded the images over a long period of time were aggravating factors.
He took into account Dwan’s co-operation with the investigation, admissions, lack of previous convictions, long work history and the fact that he had taken steps to deal with his problems by attending for psychological treatment.
