Kildare man receives concurrent sentence for possession of child sexual abuse videos

A KILDARE man who has a “fascination with younger girls” was given a prison term for the possession of child sexual abuse material concurrent to a sentence he is already serving.

John Glynn, Carrighill, Calverstown, Kilcullen appeared before Naas Circuit Court last week, pleading guilty to 11 counts related to the possession of child pornography under Section 6 of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998, which he downloaded to his phone from the internet between March 2022 and January 2023.

In March, Mr Glynn (29) had separately been sentenced to three years in prison for six counts of sexual abuse of a child in his mother’s care.

Judge Terence O’Sullivan imposed a sentence of two years last week, which included one year in prison to run concurrently with his current sentence and one year suspended if he follows specific terms and conditions.

The court was told that the same week that the sexual abuse charge was brought to garda attention, an American online child exploitation unit approached gardaí with a report detailing the possession of downloaded child abuse material at Mr Glynn’s address, which they had tracked online.

The gardaí subsequently acquired a warrant to enter the property that was tracked by the online unit to conduct a search.

When they reached the property, Mr Glynn approached gardaí telling them: “It was me – I did it.”

After conducting a search on his mobile phone, a number of child abuse images and videos downloaded from the internet were found.

Detective Wendy Cagney told the court: “In relation to his mobile phone, one photo image and ten videos were found.”

Prosecuting barrister Jordan Fletcher informed the court about the standard classification system for child sexual abuse material used in Ireland, explaining that category one denotes the least severe material, while category five represents the most extreme forms of recorded child sexual abuse.

Of the child abuse material discovered, one was considered to be in category one, two were in category two, three were in category three and six were in category four.

Defending barrister Mark Gibbons told the court that Mr Glynn had started to receive counselling with a psychologist and was “dealing with his difficulties in a progressive way”.

The psychologist’s report found that the accused had experienced some “difficulties” or abuse at a formative age, which might have influenced his actions as an adult.

Through counselling, the report noted that Mr Glynn had “recognised that it (child pornography) was wrong and that there’s human beings behind it”.

However, the probation officer working with Mr Glynn placed him on “high risk”.

Mr Gibbons explained to the court that the accused has a very limited social life and described him as a recluse. He was also described as maturing slower than others his age.

After hearing the evidence, Judge O’Sullivan said: “It seems to be a proclivity he has – a fascination with younger girls.”

“It’s a compulsion,” replied Mr Gibbons. “And it requires treatment.”

In his deliberation, Judge O’Sullivan considered the man’s fraught past, which included abuse.

“That’s the context,” he said. “It’s coloured him to some extent.”

While the judge considered the accused’s past, he said it did not give him the right to pass on the cycle of abuse.

“He has a history where he committed sexual abuse before he was charged for downloading child pornography,” he said. “This man needs some help.”

Judge O’Sullivan ruled as outlined. The conditions of his suspended sentence include: an agreement to keep the peace, a bond of €100, to remain under the supervision of the Probation Service, an agreement to follow the directions of the Probation Service, a vow to engage meaningfully in counselling and a sex offender treatment programme, as well as refraining from drugs and alcohol for this period, which requires the collection of urine samples to ensure his compliance.

Judge O’Sullivan said: “I do accept his past is hard on him, but we can’t be hard on other people as a result.”