A 36-year-old man, who was identified by Garda specialists as having in his possession a large quantity of serious child abuse images, has been jailed for 18 months.
Jamie Healy of Tivoli Woods, Cork, appeared before Cork Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to having images of child abuse in his possession at a property at Templeacre Avenue, Gurranabraher, Co Cork, on October 22nd, 2018.
The offences were detected by the National Protective Services Bureau of the Garda online child exploitation unit.
The charges related to 1,925 files seized consisting of 1,834 images and 91 movie files.
Detective Garda Pat Barry said Gardaí were notified of an IP address being used at the address of the accused, following which a warrant was obtained to search his house.
Det Garda Barry told Judge Dara Hayes that Healy co-operated with Gardaí even though he initially denied any knowledge of wrongdoing.
“The only person at the house was Jamie Healy. He brought us into the house, and it was searched for any device capable of holding this material. He denied at the time there was any child abuse material on any device.”
Two mobile phones were taken by Gardaí from the property and the child abuse images were found on both phones.
The total number of items of child sex abuse images found was 1,925. In terms of the most serious, category one images, which included young children engaged in sexual acts with animals, there were 386 images and 81 videos. Category two images, showing the genitals of children, amounted to 1,448 images and 10 videos.
When formally questioned, Healy admitted possession of the material.
The court heard he did not share the images and nobody was aware of what he was searching online.
'Hugely remorseful and apologetic'
In sentencing Judge Hayes said he was conscious Healy had lost his marriage arising out of his offending and had made three attempts on his life. He has not come to the attention of Gardaí since the detection.
Defence barrister, Ray Boland SC, had asked the court to mark the severity of the matter, but in the form of a sentence that was non-custodial.
He said that whilst the offence was serious his client had entered a guilty plea at the first opportunity and was deeply remorseful for his actions.
The court heard Healy began accessing the internet for this material in the summer of 2017 and was detected in October 2018.
Judge Hayes noted Healy had engaged in counselling in relation to his offending behaviour and was obviously hugely remorseful and apologetic for what had occurred. He said Healy was also without previous convictions and had a good history of employment.
Judge Hayes sentenced Healy to two years in prison with six months suspended, adding that he could not deal with the case in a wholly non-custodial manner.
“Owing to the quantity of images it wasn’t an infrequent or occasional matter. It wasn’t an isolated possession. Possession of child pornography is a serious offence.
“There was a significant quantity. The viewing of the images and videos took place over a protracted period of time.”
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800 77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/, or visit Rape Crisis Help. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.
