Last weekend, while unsuccessfully trying to avoid the internet, I looked over some of the accusations being made in the infamous Epstein files.
For many people, it’s horror show level stuff to imagine that many of those who are essentially entrusted with running the world we live in are alleged to be involved in or connected with a notorious rapist and paedophile and with serious wrongdoing concerning very young women and indeed children.
While there is understandable anger at how the media seems to be shying away from some of the gory allegations, the truth is that, because they are allegations, in the absence of any solid criminal investigations it would be a defamation time bomb placed in a field of landmines to cover almost any of it.
Needless to say, many of those who are named in the files have bottomless pockets and every incentive to sue if a reporter puts a foot out of place.
While we don’t know for sure whether the majority of the allegations are true or not, what we do know is that sexual interest in children and adolescents is an issue that is played out over and over in our own criminal justice system.
Infants, some even less than one year old, are not excluded from this depraved industry. I describe it as “demonic”. It is. There’s no other word that is appropriate for it. It’s the worst type of evil imaginable.
In fact, research published by Interpol in 2018 found that the age of the victim correlated with the severity of the abuse.
Of 4.9 million images analysed, more than 60% of unidentified victims were prepubescent, including infants and toddlers, it said.
As I mentioned earlier, this type of material is in high demand in Ireland.
Just this week Shankill man, Niall Syms (70) of Station Close, Clondalkin and formerly of Hazelwood Park Shankill, was jailed for three years by Judge Orla Crowe for the possession of over 55,000 images of child exposure and child sexual exploitation.
Having been present for the hearing, one of the details that gave me the creeps – besides the obvious gut-wrenching disgust at the nature of the abuse itself – was that Syms claimed that feeling “isolated” within his marriage – which has since ended – led him to consume this most depraved form of pornography.
I’m not sure how on God’s green earth someone can jump from feeling unfulfilled in their marriage to enjoying seeing a girl between the ages of 7 and 9 years being anally, vaginally, and digitally raped by an adult male while tied up.
This is just one of the many sick videos Syms had on his devices.
While the description of the abuse is enough to make you retch in horror – and I have heard other acts of the most vile abuse detailed, which I have been advised not to publish – the question that always haunts me is “Where are those children now?”
Even the mental picture of the abuses I have heard described fills me with a black rage that I can’t express. I can’t bring myself to imagine what it’s like to have to watch it.
As you’ve probably guessed, the case above is anything but isolated. Dr Maggie Brennan, Assistant Professor in Psychology at DCU, told me that a map of IP addresses of those who access this stuff online showed her that, “Ireland is covered in red dots.”
Last December, Alan Keating (48) of Ranelagh, the Triangle, Dublin 6, was jailed by Judge Martin Nolan for possession of child sex abuse material.
He had a manual downloaded on his computer which had instructions on how to ‘properly’ sexually abuse kids. Words failed me when I first heard that, and they fail me now.
Keating had 330 images and 791 video files of child abuse, including images of boys and girls aged between one and 15 years. These included images of the victims, who authorities could not identify, being raped, caged, and bound with ropes while being abused.
The professional pastry maker was sentenced to one year in prison.
Bolivian Romer Huarita (31), who has an address at Windmill Lane, Dublin 2, was also jailed by Judge Nolan after he was found in possession of three hours of footage of child sex abuse.
One of the videos showed a 10-year-old boy lying on top of an adult male who was masturbating. The other depicted a young boy masturbating an adult male.
Now due for release after serving six months in jail for possession of “gross” child sex abuse material is Michael Kearns (58) of Hartstown, Clonsilla, Dublin 15.
Kearns was jailed by Judge Pauline Codd last July after he pleaded guilty to possessing images which showed girls and boys between the ages of 5 and 15 years engaged in sexual activity, such as oral, masturbation, as well as vaginal and anal penetration.
He also had 33 images depicting the exposure of children’s genitalia, and claimed to have developed an interest in child sex abuse material after losing his libido due to cancer treatment.
Brazilian Murilo Dos Santos (36), of Christchurch View, Dublin 8, was found to be in possession of 66 videos of “extreme” child pornography.
Videos Dos Santos sent via messaging services like WhatsApp depicted boys between the ages of 10 and 14 years on webcam masturbating and engaged in oral sex.
Another video depicted boys between the ages of 8 and 10 being orally raped by an adult male, while another depicted children between the ages of 8 and 12 engaged in oral sex acts.
Another video depicted boys between the ages of 10 and 14 years engaged in oral sex, while another video showed a toddler who was “naked from the waist down” being picked up and placed onto an erect penis.
If you’ve managed to make it this far, I salute you.
Knowing that this kind of thing is even happening, that there’s demand for it, that real flesh and blood children are being sexually tortured, sometimes killed, as you read these words, all for the sick pleasure of monsters that walk among us does something to your soul.
If I could put it into words, it feels like there’s a part of me that the light doesn’t reach anymore.
Suffice to say that we don’t need to go to the Epstein files in search of evil.