A man caught with over 10,000 pornographic images showing “very young children in very graphic acts” has been fined €1,000 and given a three-year suspended sentence.
Colm Carty (39) of Channel Road, Rush, Co Dublin came to the attention of Austrian police who then alerted gardaί.
Carty pleaded guilty to possession of the images at his home on February 16th, 2007 and told gardai his behaviour was “at the level of fantasy but he had no intention of bringing it to reality”.
Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court said, after viewing a sample of the images, that his instant reaction was to impose a custodial sentence but he had been apprised of Carty’s character through reports from a probation officer, a psychiatrist and the Granada Institute.
He noted that staff from the Granada Institute were uncertain if they had the resources to facilitate Carty’s treatment there as he had been recently diagnosed as having a personality disorder.
Judge Hogan said he thought it was more important that Carty be “afforded an opportunity” to continue with his treatment and suspended the sentence on condition that he attend with either the Granada Institute or any similar organisation that can assist him.
Detective Sergeant Maura Walsh told prosecuting counsel Una Ni Raifeartaigh that although Carty was mainly interested in 12- 16-year-old children, the significant portion of the images confiscated by gardai were of very young children.
He told gardai that he first used the internet to get “cheats” for games but then started to look up adult pornography before moving on to images of children.
He said it started off with ‘pop-ups’ but he accepted he deliberately looked at the sites, saved images and printed them off.
Caroline Biggs BL, defending, asked Judge Hogan to accept that as Carty was not distributing the child pornography, his case was comparable to that of the difference between a drug user and a dealer.
“Although he still engages in the industry to feed his addiction he does not do so for commercial gain,” she said.
She said that a report from the Granada Institute indicated that Carty had a “deep seated fear of intimacy”, never having had a sexual experience or a long lasting friendship.
She said he was “120 per cent committed” to his treatment there which he had paid for with 20 years of savings and added that he was “absolutely disgusted with himself”.
Ms Biggs said the report indicated he was at a modest risk of re-offending because he struggled to understand the impact child pornography had on those depicted.