Judge hands down suspended sentence in child pornography case
A convicted child abuser who viewed computer generated child pornography has received a suspended jail sentence after a judge said the images did not harm or exploit children.
Traces of images showing children involved in sexually explicit activity were found on computer hard drives belonging to John O’Neill (aged 54).
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the 25 images didn’t depict real children but were very graphic and designed to look like real children.
O’Neill had found the images on the Internet using search terms “porn-toons” and “3D Incest”. He told gardaí he viewed them to get sexual gratification without involving children.
Judge Martin Nolan said that if the material had been normal child porn using real children or if O’Neill had paid for it, he would be imposing a “reasonably severe” sentence.
He said in this case no actual children were involved and that O’Neill had not paid for the images. He said these facts put the case at the lower end of seriousness, adding: “This material, no matter how odious, did not harm or exploit children.”
O’Neill of Moyne Road, Ranelagh, Dublin pleaded guilty to possession of 25 images of child pornography at his flat on dates between October 24, 2008 and January 10, 2009.
He previously received a ten-year prison term for counts of rape, indecent assault and sexual assault of minors. This sentence was reviewed seven years later and O’Neill released on probation for five years.
Judge Nolan noted that there were no other offences, apart from the one before the court, since his release then.
Noting O’Neill’s guilty plea and admissions to gardaí, Judge Nolan suspended a sentence of two years on the condition that he is of good behaviour for that period.
The judge said that the delay in bringing a prosecution had had a “traumatic affect” on O’Neill. The court previously heard that on one occasion gardaí had to take O’Neill to hospital after finding he had made a suicide attempt at his home.
Detective Garda Mark O’Neill told Úna Ní Raifeartaigh SC, prosecuting, that the images found on O’Neill’s computer showed graphic depictions of sexual activity with speech bubbles that left no doubt that the images were of children.
When confronted with the images O’Neill said he viewed them because he was bored and found them sexually gratifying.
He said viewing thumbnail images of children as young as toddlers on the internet was like using a TV remote control.
He said he didn’t think there was any harm in it and he thought it was a safe way of getting gratification without involving children. He later agreed with gardaí that if there wasn’t a demand for the images they wouldn’t be produced.
Judge Nolan said: “It could be argued that he is further degenerating himself by looking at these pictures and rendering himself more dangerous to the public. That’s difficult to prove one way or another.”
The court heard he is a registered sex offender, is being monitored and has undergone post release treatment.
Remy Farrell SC, defending, said O’Neill’s paedophilia is “a life-long issue”. He argued that these offences were at the lowest end of the spectrum because O’Neill had only viewed the images without saving them.
Experts at the Garda Computer Crime Unit used forensic software to retrieve traces of the viewed images.
Mr Farrell said without his client’s guilty plea there could have been an “interesting legal issue” around whether simply looking at such images would amount to possession.
