A qualified pastry maker, who was found in possession of child sex abuse material, including a manual on how to sexually assault children, and images of victims “caged”, has been jailed by Judge Martin Nolan.
Alan Keating (48) of Ranelagh, the Triangle, Dublin 6 and also of Coolock Dublin 11, pleaded guilty to offences contrary to the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998.
The court heard that, in 2017, Gardaí received a tip off from Swiss authorities about the sharing of child sex abuse material on a sharing platform, which led to the identification of an IP address belonging to the accused.
In all, the accused was in possession of 330 images and 791 video files of child abuse including images of boys and girls aged between 1 and 15 years, which included images of the victims, who authorities could not identify, being raped, caged, and bound with ropes while being abused.
These images showed the children being anally and vaginally raped, as well as images of masturbation.
The court heard that the videos images that the video files were somewhat “less explicit”.
Keating, who is originally from Galway, was also in possession of a document on “how to practice child love “ which was an instruction manual on how to sexually abuse children.
This document contained passages on “safe and fun sex with children” as well as images of children engaged in sexual acts.
When Keating was interviewed he gave “no comment” answers, the court heard.
In terms of the count of disruption, the court heard that Keating shared his password with other users of the site on which the images were shared on 10 occasions between the 1st and 4th of April 2017.
His defending counsel, Kevin White SC argued that his client was granted bail with no conditions, that he has no previous convictions, that he has a good work history, and that he put himself in therapy after the Garda intervention.
Mr. White argued that his client experienced a “traumatic incident” while in the care of a female family friend when he was eight years old.
The court heard that his mother passed away when he was 5 months old, and that his father had to work the family farm with four other children also present.
White described his client’s offending as having taken place during a “period of psychological vulnerability”.
“We all know what society’s reaction to these offences can be like,” he said, while arguing for clemency.
Judge Nolan said that there was a “considerable amount of material” on the laptop of the accused, and that there was suspected to be “lots more material in a certain part of the memory of this particular computer.”
The court noted that there was also a “pretty disturbing document found by the guards” as well.
“It’s a serious matter”, the court commented, noting the accused’s otherwise clean criminal record, and the “challenges” he says he has faced.
Judge Nolan said that the court “unfortunately” sees a high number of similar cases, and that, because of the legal precedent of DPP vs Loving, a suspended sentence “must always be considered” where there is a marked lack of “aggravating factors” in a case.
He said that aggravating factors are similar previous convictions, a “very large quantity” of images, distribution, or possession of material “relating to a party that the defendant knows of”.
In terms of aggravating factors, the court noted that Keating had engaged in distribution to a “modest extent” and that document which indicates “that he had an interest in this type of behaviour”.
He said that distribution and the document gave “a certain tint to the case”, before sentencing the accuse to one year in prison from today’s date.