Man to be jailed for 'horrendous' child porn

A computer technician who had what gardaí described as "the vilest and most horrendous ever" images of child pornography has …

A computer technician who had what gardaí described as "the vilest and most horrendous ever" images of child pornography has been remanded in custody for sentencing by Judge Miriam Reynolds at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Ray Daly (41), Ellensborough Way, Kiltipper, Dublin, was found guilty by a jury on May 16th on four charges of knowingly having child pornography in his possession on dates from June 1st, 2003, to July 5th, 2004.

The jury of eight women and four men brought in the guilty verdict on day-five of his trial.

Tim O'Leary SC, defending, told Judge Reynolds that Daly accepted he was going to be jailed and submitted that he came before the court as a person of previous good character whose one previous conviction was for simple possession of a drug more than 20 years ago for which he was fined £10.

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Mr O'Leary said "these offences punish the guilty in any event" and the jury's verdict had "a devastating effect" on him already due to the "media witch-hunt" following his conviction.

He said Daly was a very qualified person at his work with a B.Sc degree and membership of the Institute of Engineers in Ireland. He was well known where he lived and was involved in charitable work, including parachute jumping to raise funds for good causes.

Det Garda Liam Coogan said that videos showing systematic sexual abuse of children as young as two years were recovered following forensic examination by gardaí of computer equipment from Daly's home.

Det Garda Coogan said images showed children being subjected to penetration and crying out for it to be stopped.

Gardaí classified these images in which children are subjected to a sexual act involving pain or depicting pain as "level 1" child pornography.

Det Garda Ronan Waldron told Mary Ellen Ring SC, prosecuting, that Daly was single and the father of three children by three different women. He had been suspended from his work to await the outcome of the trial.

Judge Reynolds, who viewed some of the material recovered from Daly's computer and separate hard drives, said she needed time to consider the case law for these offences before deciding on sentence, which would be custodial.

Det Garda Coogan told Ms Ring that the three "level 1" video clips ran for one minute 41 seconds, one minute 30 seconds and one minute 10 seconds, respectively.

He could not say if it was the same child in each clip He said that as well as the three "level 1" video images, gardaí also recovered 11 stills classified as "level 1".

Det Garda Coogan said the images were recovered from temporary internet folders and deleted video and images on a computer and on separate hard drives.

They included images of children having sexual intercourse with children, children having sex with adults and of oral sex involving children and adults.

Det Garda Waldron said that Daly's house was searched after three members of the public expressed concern to gardaí. Daly accepted when arrested that the child pornography was on his harddisks but denied possession of it.

He claimed he "didn't seek out child porn" and his viewing of it "was just curiosity".

He denied downloading the child pornography but told gardaí he sometimes "inadvertently viewed" some such sites.

He said he could get 60-80 spam e-mails daily and after "clicking" on them "might have gone in" to sites with child pornography but he said he would not view this pornography on a daily basis.

"It just began coming in I suppose because I clicked on it," Daly told gardaí.