A 36-year-old Cork man was jailed for 18 months for downloading a large quantity of child abuse images including images in the most serious category.
Judge Dara Hayes imposed a sentence of two years on Jamie Healy and suspended the last six months of the sentence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
Jamie Healy of Tivoli Woods, Cork, pleaded guilty to having the child abuse images at a property at Templeacre Avenue, Gurranabraher, Cork, over three years ago on October 22, 2018. Detective Garda Pat Barry said there were 1,925 files seized consisting of 1,834 images and 91 movie files.
Detective Garda Barry said notification of the IP address came from the online child exploitation unit of the National Protective Services Bureau of An Garda Síochána and the investigation followed.
Judge Hayes said there had to be a custodial sentence because of the sheer number of images and the severity of many of them. The judge noted that there were category 1 images showing young children, some of them toddlers, engaged in sexual acts and in bestiality.
Judge Hayes said these images resulted from sexual abuse to a serious degree of real children. The judge said that downloading such material was a serious matter.
Judge Hayes took into consideration the defendant’s own dysfunctional childhood and noted three attempts at suicide which he made following the detection of these images on two phones at his home. The judge said the plea of guilty, the remorse shown and the absence of any other convictions before or since were mitigating factors.
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Outlining the background to the detection of the offence, Det. Garda Barry said: “The only person at the house was Jamie Healy. He brought us into the house and it was searched for any device capable of holding this material.
“He denied at the time there was any child abuse material on any device,” Det. Garda Barry said. Two mobile phones were seized and the child abuse images were found on both phones.
The total number of child abuse images was 1,925. In terms of the most serious category 1 images, which included
