Appeal court reduces man's sentence in child abuse images case

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The Court of Appeal reduced a man's prison sentence to three-and-a-half years, suspending the final 12 months, for facilitating the production of child abuse images involving his daughter. Her mother filmed the images.

The proceedings were reported on 19 February 2016.

At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, he had pleaded not guilty to sexual exploitation and to knowingly causing or facilitating the production of child abuse images. The offences occurred in Dublin between 2009 and 2010.

On 31 July 2014, Judge Sarah Berkeley imposed a prison term of five years and suspended the final 12 months.

The girl's mother pleaded guilty. She received a separate sentence of 36 months, with the final 20 suspended.

Patrick Gageby SC, representing the man, argued that his client's ex-partner had instigated the offence. He submitted that the man's sentence was three times hers, although she had not contested the case. Counsel also disputed the trial judge's finding that the man lacked remorse.

In his judgment, Mr Justice John Edwards recounted how a member of the public discovered a crushed phone in June 2010. Its SD card appeared intact. On examining it, the finder discovered disturbing, apparently sexual images involving an adult and a very young child. He recognised the child and immediately alerted gardaí.

The Garda investigation established that she was the man's four-year-old daughter. The Health Service Executive obtained an interim care order the following day. The man and his ex-partner attended that hearing.

Mr Justice John Edwards found that remorse had received too little allowance. The original sentence also gave inadequate weight to the man's previously good character, assistance to gardaí and low intelligence, which increased his vulnerability to prison bullying. He stressed the importance of encouraging rehabilitation and found the original suspension insufficient to reflect those mitigating circumstances.

Mr Justice John Edwards resentenced the man alongside Mr Justice George Birmingham and Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan.