A paedophile pensioner with extensive knowledge of the “dark web” has been jailed for a year after admitting to downloading and viewing over 11,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse and child exposure.
Maurice Snowdon (78), of Ogonnelloe, Scarriff, Co Clare, showed little or no empathy for the “many victims” in the child sex abuse material that “he sought for his personal enjoyment”, sentencing Judge Colin Daly said.
Snowdon, who lives alone, pleaded guilty before Limerick Circuit Criminal Court to four counts of possession of “child pornography” as described in the indictment against him.
Gardaí were alerted to the material after staff at a Compu B store in Limerick, where Snowdon had left his computer in for repairs, found two images of child sexual abuse on the computer’s hard drive.
Gardaí obtained a warrant from Limerick District Court to search Snowdon’s home, where they seized three computers and a digital SD storage card, containing 11,583 images and up to 14 hours of videos.
Judge Daly said 1,145 of the total images seized were categorised by gardaí as being “in the most serious category” of child sex abuse material.
The judge said Snowdon “deliberately sought out this material on the dark web”.
“When considering the harm done I must take note that there is a real victim in each of the images. He (Snowdon) has shown very little empathy for the victims, of which there are many,” said the judge.
During interviews with gardaí, after his arrest, Snowden said his definition of a child was a person aged “up to 14 years”.
Gardaí said the retired engineer likened his “watching” of the material to his love of organ music and hobby of fixing lamps.
A Garda Detective attached to the Limerick Divisional Protective Services Unit (DPSU), which investigates crimes of a sexual nature, told the court Snowdon had an “extensive and unusual knowledge of the Dark Web”.
The Garda said Snowdon told officers he believed he had deleted the child abuse material, which was eventually unearthed by gardaí who are specially trained in computer forensics.
In mitigation, Snowdon’s barrister, senior counsel Pat Barriscale, asked the court to take into consideration the defendant’s guilty plea, his lack of any previous convictions, and that Snowdon “was in no way involved in the production or distribution of the imagery — they were for his own pleasure, solely”.
Judge Daly said the children in the imagery found on Snowdon’s electronic devices had been “the victim of the most egregious form of exploitation and abuse”.
The judge ordered Snowdon to be put on a “sex offender’s register” for a period of ten years, and he imposed a prison sentence of 18 months with the final six months suspended.
The judge ordered that Snowdon be supervised by the probation services after his sentence ends and that Snowdon engage with any and all therapy programmes to try to curb his predilection for seeking child sexual abuse material.
The judge said Snowdon must notify the probation services of any change in his home address, and that if he reoffends after his release he faces the prospect of having the suspended part of his sentence activated.
The judge concluded that Snowdon, who is almost 79, “accepted responsibility” for the child sexual abuse material, “albeit amidst very strong evidence against him”, and that it was “reasonable to conclude he is unlikely to come before the courts again”.
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.
