The number of people investigated for child pornography offences in Ireland has fallen significantly since it peaked in 2002, despite the increasing availability of such material due to the so-called "digital revolution," a new UCD report for the Department of Justice has shown.
This has prompted one of the co-authors of the report to warn that as offenders have become more sophisticated at covering their tracks, such offences are becoming increasingly difficult for the Garda to detect.
In 2002, at the height of Operation Amethyst, when a series of Garda dawn raids on homes and business premises in May of that year exposed Irish involvement in the international child pornography trade, there were 104 such individuals investigated (up from six in 2000 and 21 in 2001), the report shows.
But the following year, there were 48 individuals investigated for such offences, while in 2004, 25 people were investigated,according to figures contained in the report, Child pornography and the Criminal Justice System, by Prof Ian O'Donnell and Claire Milner of UCD's Institute of Criminology.
The figures, supplied by the Garda to the report's authors, are based on the number of individuals rather than the number of incidents recorded, and therefore differ to those contained in An Garda Síochána's annual reports.
While the existence of Operation Amethyst may have led to a spike in the overall figure for investigations of individuals in 2002, Prof O'Donnell also warns that the number of Irish people with access to pornographic images involving minors is increasing.
"The stock of images is increasing and the number of people with access to those images is increasing because of internet access at home and in the workplace," Prof O'Donnell said.
"But that is not reflected in these statistics. It shows how difficult it is to police a global problem."
The report states that the Crime Policy and Administration section of Garda headquarters identified 177 officers who had investigated at least one child pornography case between 2000 and 2004.
Between them, they had investigated 204 individuals suspected of committing one or more offences contrary to the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act, 1998.
They returned valid information on a total of 138 individuals who were investigated by gardaí.
The UCD report has been submitted to the Department of Justice.
Twelve judges with experience of child pornography cases were interviewed for the report without their identities being revealed.
Their responses reveal that they attach particular weight to the seriousness of the crime when determining punishment.
Imprisonment was the only penalty handed out by the courts for the production or distribution of child pornography.
But for simple possession, the full range of sentencing options - from the maximum of five years imprisonment to 12 months probation - was used.