Computer technician jailed over 'horrendous' child porn images
A computer technician who had what gardaí described as "the vilest and most horrendous ever" images of child porn has been jailed for three years by Judge Miriam Reynolds at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Ray Daly (aged 41), of Ellensborough Way, Kiltipper was found guilty by a jury on May 16 on four charges of knowingly having child pornography in his possession on dates from June 1, 2003 to July 5, 2004. The jury of eight women and four men brought in the guilty verdict on day five of his trial.
Detective Garda Liam Coogan of the Garda National Bureau of Fraud Investigation said that videos showing systematic sexual abuse of children as young as two years were recovered following forensic examination of computer equipment from Daly’s home.
Det Garda Coogan said images showed children being subjected to penile penetration and crying out for it to be stopped. Gardaí classified these images in which children are subjected to a sexual act involving pain or depicting pain as "Level 1" child pornography.
Detective Sergeant Tom Doyle told Ms Mary Ellen Ring SC (with Ms Mary Rose Gearty BL), prosecuting, that Daly was a single and the father of three children by three different women. He had been suspended from his work to await the outcome of the trial.
Judge Reynolds, who viewed some of the material recovered by gardaí from Daly’s computer and external hard drives, said it was necessary for her to do so because she couldn’t impose sentence in a vacuum.
She said that the images depicted sadism and bestiality on toddlers.
Judge Reynolds also noted another image of a child bound hand and foot with black tape and being seriously sexually abused while crying out in pain for it to stop.
She said the maximum sentence she could impose was one of five years and the legislation regulated for "mere possession" as against "dissemination" and there was no evidence of Daly having possession of it for commercial gain but there was evidence of at least one person having been shown it.
Judge Reynolds said the jury was very careful in its deliberations and had "intelligently paid great attention" to the evidence before coming to its unanimous guilty verdicts on the four charges.
Det Garda Coogan told Ms Ring that the three "Level 1" video clips were titled: "Baby J Purple", "Baby J Mine" and "Baby J Sunshine". The clips ran for one minute 41 seconds, one minute 30 seconds and one minute 10 seconds, respectively. He couldn’t say if it was the same child in each clip.
Det Garda Coogan said that as well as the three "Level 1" video images, gardaí also recovered 11 ‘stills’ classified as "Level 1".
"Level 2" images were where the child was involved in a sex act involving penetration of any body orifice, including all forms of oral sex; "Level 3" was where the child was involved in masturbation, touching or kissing; and "Level 4" was where the dominant characteristic was the depiction of the genital or anal region.
Det Garda Coogan said that the "Level 2" video images recovered totalled 42 and "stills" 363; "Level 3" video clips totalled 63 with 211 ‘stills"; and "Level 4" images totalled 31 video clips with 217 ‘stills’.
He said the images were recovered from temporary internet folders and deleted video and images on a computer and on external hard disc drives. They included images of children having sexual intercourse with children, children having sex with adults, and of oral sex involving children on each other and with adults.
Det Garda Coogan told Ms Ring there was no form of virus infection on Daly’s computer and no evidence of purchase of the child porn by credit cards.
Det Garda Ronan Waldron said at the trial that Daly’s house was searched after three members of the public expressed concern to gardaí. Daly accepted when arrested that the child porn was on his hard discs but denied possession of it. He claimed he "didn’t seek out child porn" and his viewing of it "was just curiosity".
He denied downloading the child pornography but told gardaí he sometimes "inadvertently viewed" some such sites. He said he could get 60-80 spam emails daily and after clicking on them "might have gone in" to sites with child porn but would not view this porn on a daily basis.
Det Garda Waldron said Daly claimed he "was not interested in this type of content" and denied he was "a collector of child porn" and did not recall seeing children involved in oral sex
Daly told gardaí he did not show the child porn to anyone else. He agreed with gardaí he was "ashamed" of what was shown to him and when asked if his shame was because gardaí had found the images on his equipment, he replied it was "honest shame".
"It just began coming in I suppose because I clicked on it," Daly told gardaí.
Mr Tim O’Leary SC (with Mr Kieran Kelly BL), defending, told Judge Reynolds that Daly accepted he was going to be jailed and submitted that he came before the court as a person of previous good character whose one previous conviction was for simple possession of a drug more than 20 years ago for which he was fined Ir£10.
Mr O’Leary said: "These offences punish the guilty in any event" and the jury’s verdict had "a devastating effect" on him already due to the "media witchhunt" following his conviction.
He said Daly was a very qualified person at his work with a B.Sc degree and membership of the Institute of Engineers in Ireland. He was well known where he lived and was involved in charitable work including parachute jumping to raise funds for good causes.
"This is a case of possession simpliciter with no question of him distributing the material," Mr O'Leary said.
