Louth man jailed for possessing child sexual abuse images says he was ‘relieved’ to be caught

By Francis Carroll, The Drogheda Independent

A financial analyst found in possession of child sexual abuse images has been jailed for 15 months.

Luke Victory (41), Gleann Alainn, Tullyallen, Drogheda, was before Dundalk Circuit Court for sentencing after signing guilty pleas in the district court to two counts of possessing the images, and a further charge of production.

The production matter related to explicit sexualised chat on the MeetMe app with another user, believed to be in the Philippines, in which the defendant expressed an interest in meeting children as young as eight for sexual abuse.

Gardaí had been notified by an agency in the United States and an investigation commenced.

Mr Victory provided the codes to access two mobile phones, after gardaí executed a search warrant at his house on June 1, 2023.

Twenty-three images were found. Nine were classed as Category 1, involving sexual activity, and the rest, Category 2, exposure. The children ranged in age from 3 to 14.

The defendant was arrested on October 21, 2024. He told investigators that he was not sexually attracted to children. He said he didn’t know how he got to that place.

Married with two children, Mr Victory has no previous convictions, nor has he come to any adverse Garda attention since. He co-operated fully.

Det Sgt Karen McDonnell told an earlier sentence hearing that the man’s wife and family were distressed and disgusted. It came as a complete shock to them. They were standing by him.

He was relieved to have been caught. The Probation Service assessed him as being at low risk of reoffending.

Judge Dara Hayes noted that the defendant had referred himself to One in 4 and has engaged in counselling.

The judge continued that the victims were vulnerable children from nobody knows where, all over the world.

A general deterrent plays a greater role in cases of this nature.

The quantity (of images) was significantly less than the court often heard about.

A two-and-a-half-year sentence was imposed on the production charge, and concurrent 15-month terms for the possession charges, the final 15 months conditionally suspended for two years.