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.
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 young children engaged in sexual acts with animals, there were 386 images and 81 videos. Category 2 images showing the genital areas of children amounted to 1,448 images and 10 videos.
Ultimately, the accused was fully cooperative with the investigation and admitted possession of the material. There was no distribution of the material by the accused and nobody was aware of the material he was accessing.
The detective said that following the detection of the material and questioning, the accused made three attempts to take his own life.
In relation to a psychiatric report that was put into evidence by the defence, Det. Garda Barry said: “I was not aware of some of the issues in his history.” Ray Boland, defence senior counsel, said of Jamie Healy: “From the psychiatric report he would have had a history of being a loner. He has not come to attention since (the detection in 2018).
"He has been very cooperative. He did not admit it in the heat of the moment but immediately afterwards he did cooperate. His marriage ended as a result of this issue. Obviously, it is a very serious case. He is a working man.”
