The Court of Appeal has quashed fully suspended sentences imposed on Anthony Ryan for possessing and distributing child pornography, finding that the case required a custodial sentence. It imposed a four-year headline sentence for the distribution offending, with two and a half years to be served and the final year suspended on terms. The possession offence was taken into consideration, and the court made a five-year supervision order.
The Director of Public Prosecutions had asked the court to review the Circuit Criminal Court sentences as unduly lenient. Ryan had pleaded guilty to possession and distribution offences under the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998. In March 2024, the Circuit Court imposed a two-year sentence for possession and a three-year sentence for distribution, both suspended in full. The Court of Appeal delivered judgment on 17 December 2024.
The appeal court heard that a Garda search of Ryan’s home in September 2020 followed information from the FBI about Kik accounts associated with email addresses linked to him. A forensic examination of his personal phone found 575 items of child abuse material. Investigators identified 45 Kik chat threads, 16 of which contained such material. The court said Ryan shared 42 images and videos through the chats and provided some links that allowed other participants to view and download material. The offending described in the judgment ran from July to September 2020 and ended when Gardaí searched his home.
The court also considered evidence that Ryan had encouraged others to post material, uploaded it for users who had been temporarily banned, briefly acted as an administrator of a group chat and tried to persuade another user to send images of her daughter. The judgment records his cooperation with Gardaí, guilty pleas, lack of previous convictions, employment history and participation in counselling and rehabilitation programmes. It also took account of health and family circumstances.
The Court of Appeal concluded that, despite those mitigating factors, the original sentences were “simply too low, or disproportionately low”. It held that non-custodial disposal was not appropriate in this case and that the sentencing judge had erred in principle. The court said general deterrence was particularly important for this type of premeditated offending, while suspension of part of the sentence would support continued rehabilitation.
The court resentenced Ryan de novo. It set a four-year headline sentence for the distribution offence, imposed a two-and-a-half-year sentence, and suspended the final year on terms. It took the possession offence into consideration and made a supervision order under section 29 of the Sex Offenders Act 2001, as amended, for five years.