Man jailed after being caught with almost 1.5 million images of child sexual abuse

Sonya Mclean

A man who was caught with almost 1.5 million images of child sexual abuse material after he began accessing such images as a 13-year-old boy has been jailed for 27 months.

Stephen Byrne (26) pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the images, termed child pornography in law, at his then rented home on Harolds Cross Road, Terenure, Dublin 6, on March 2nd, 2022. He has no previous convictions.

Detective Garda Mairead McKinney told Jennifer Jackson BL, prosecuting, that gardaí began an investigation into the accessing of suspected child sexual abuse material which led to a warrant being secured to search Byrne’s rented home.

During that search, nine electronic devices were seized. They were analysed and seven of those devices were found to contain child sexual abuse material.

Det Gda McKinney confirmed that 1,440,675 images and videos were found which depicted children in sexually explicit interactions with either adults or other children and images and videos of children exposing their genitalia. The children were mainly girls aged between six and 15 years old.

Byrne attended by appointment in Tallaght Garda Station on August 16th, 2024. He took responsibility for all the devices.

Dark Web

He admitted that he had been accessing such material from the age of 13 either through the Dark Web, WhatsApp groups or other social media platforms.

Det Gda McKinney agreed with Marc Thompson SC, defending, that his client was fully cooperative with the gardaí and acknowledged that Byrne has been attending for counselling.

Mr Thompson said his client was adopted from Russia from a very young age. He said Byrne had previously been both physically and verbally abusive to his parents but added that there has been “an improvement in his behaviour” since the garda raid on his home.

He said immediately after the raid Byrne became addicted to both drugs and alcohol but he has since attended therapy in an attempt to deal with this addiction.

Mr Thompson acknowledged that “society wants this kind of offence to be punished” but asked that Byrne be “allowed to stay on the road” which he is currently on in terms of attending counselling and therapy to deal with his addictions.

Offending

Judge Martin Nolan said that Byrne had been offending over a long period of time which ended when he was 21 or 22 years old.

“What is forgivable as a younger child is not forgivable when you are 18 or 19 years old,” the judge commented.

He acknowledged that Byrne has no previous convictions and has good family support. He accepted that he has changed his life since detection by gardaí.

Judge Nolan set a headline sentence of four and half years. He said the most significant aggravating feature in the case is the number of images that Byrne was caught and the length of time he had been offending.

The judge imposed a sentence of 27 months having taken into account the various mitigating features in the case including his co-operation with the investigation and his admissions of guilt.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.