Former civil servant downloaded 'horrific' child porn images
A former civil servant who downloaded child pornographic images described as "amongst the worst that have ever come before the courts" has been given a two-year suspended sentence.
Gerard McMahon (aged 53), a divorced father of six, with an address at The Richmond Apartments, North Brunswick Street, Dublin 7 pleaded guilty to five counts of possession of child pornography on dates in March 2002.
Gardaí from Harcourt Square Garda Station seized two computers, cables and a keyboard from McMahon’s apartment on September 29, 2002.
McMahon admitted using his credit card to access images and movie files, depicting babies and children up to 13 or 14 years of age, but did not save, print or exchange these images.
Det Sgt Madden said the images clearly depicted young children and not young teenagers who could be mistaken for adults. He said that every time he viewed the images, he found them "very hard to look at and very hard to take".
Some of the images were exact recordings of sexual assaults on young children.
McMahon admitted he knew the nature of these images when he accessed them but added that it was his intention to delete them after they were viewed.
Det Sgt Madden rejected a suggestion by defence counsel, Mr Martin Dully BL, that McMahon showed "self-disgust" for his participation in these offences. "I saw no evidence of that whatsoever."
He accepted Mr Dully’s submission that McMahon had not created any files to retain these images but had mostly accessed and deleted them after he viewed them. The only exception were six "very graphic images" which he saved into a password-protected zip file.
Det Sgt Madden agreed with Mr Dully that McMahon was a very lonely and isolated individual who had a lengthy history of social phobia, anxiety and depression.
Mr Dully submitted that the quantity of the material found was not significant and said it demonstrated that McMahon was able to use some form of control over his habit.
Judge Yvonne Murphy at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court noted positive reports from The Granada Institute and psychiatric services where McMahon has been receiving treatment over the past year.
She said McMahon was a first time offender who now sees little of his own children and had a prosperous career at one stage but was now retired and living on a pension.
Judge Murphy imposed a two-year sentence which she suspended on strict conditions, ordered the destruction of the images and the electronic equipment on which they were stored and added McMahon’s name to the sex offenders register.
Detective Sergeant James Madden told Ms Martina Baxter BL, prosecuting, that the images were of "a graphic and horrific nature and fall into the very serious end of the child pornography scale."
