A SLIGO-BASED computer programmer who downloaded almost 16,000 child pornography images depicting children as young as four, was sentenced to three years in prison yesterday.
Judge Anthony Kennedy told Manchester-born Gary Smith that many many children had been abused to enable the material found in his possession to exist.
The accused had pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography at his home at Ashbrook, Pearse Road, Sligo, on January 11th, 2007.
The judge, who stressed that this was not a victimless crime, also ordered that Smith be placed on the sex offenders' register for five years, that he receive post-release supervision for two years and that he receive appropriate treatment or counselling on his release.
Judge Kennedy pointed out that the defendant, who smiled as the sentence was being handed down, had been looking on and listening to the proceedings as if he was an outsider and had shown "no trace of embarrassment".
He said that he had wondered whether this was because the defendant was a foreign national with no ties here or was someone who could not care less what this society thought of him.
Sligo Circuit Court heard the defendant came to the attention of the Garda as a result of a German investigation known as Operation Max into the dissemination of child pornography.
The material at the centre of this investigation included a video portraying the rape and sexual assault of a four-year-old girl.
Smith initially denied to the Garda that he had ever accessed child pornography when their investigation led to his place of work in Sligo.
But when gardaí arrived at his home later that day, he handed them a shopping bag containing nine hard drives and 20 CDs and DVDs containing child pornography.
A friend of his was in the house and the material was about to be taken away when the gardaí arrived.
Sgt Niall Gordon told prosecuting counsel Donal Keane BL that the accused maintained that he used to delete any images showing a child crying or distressed. But imposing sentence, the judge detailed some of the horrific images involved, which depicted children as young as four five and six, being abused.
Smith had told gardaí that while he had been interested in adult pornography for a number of years, he had become interested in child pornography only 18 months before his arrest.
He had come across a video of a young teenage girl aged about 12 or 13 dancing naked and had found this to be very erotic.
He had deleted the material knowing it was illegal, but in a few days had returned to the site and this type of material became a compulsion.
The court heard that Smith had downloaded 15,837 images.
Smith told gardaí that he was surprised to learn that 25 of the images in his possession were of children in bondage who were in fear or pain and that others portrayed children engaged in sexual acts as "it is not what I am into". He said he could have "harvested" this material inadvertently and not deleted it .
Smith who studied maths, statistics and computers at Sheffield City University and had been living in Sligo since 1995. was described as a "loner".
Defence counsel Colm Smyth SC, told the court that a detailed report by psychiatrist Dr Paul O'Connell showed that the defendant had suffered brain damage as a result of a road traffic accident when he was an adolescent .
Counsel said that he was in no way trying to condone or defend behaviour which would offend and greatly distress right thinking people.
"We are dealing with the abuse of little children, the abuse of young teenagers," said Mr Smyth, but he argued that the accused was suffering from "frontal lobe syndrome", which was a factor in his deviant behaviour.
"He is a person crying out for treatment," said Mr Smyth.
