'Significant level of depravity': Man (58) caught with child abuse imagery

Isabel Hayes

A married man who was caught with child sexual abuse material in the form of hundreds of images and videos on his home computer has been jailed for six months.

Michael Kearns (58) was caught with 207 images and 164 movie files containing child abuse imagery when gardaí searched his home in April 2019 following a tip-off from an international organisation.

The abuse material involved girls and boys between the ages of five and 15 being sexually abused and exposed, the court heard on Monday.

Kearns, of Willow Wood Grove, Hartstown, Clonsilla, Dublin, pleaded guilty to possession of the material, known in law as child pornography, at his home address on dates between April 2017 and April 2019. The maximum sentence is five years.

Kearns has no previous convictions, Oisin Clarke BL, prosecuting, told the court.

Sentencing him, Judge Pauline Codd noted that the images and videos before the court involved the sexual abuse of young children, placing it in the upper category of seriousness.

The case involved “a significant level of depravity”, she said.

“Children of that age need to be protected and children in general need the courts to protect them,” the judge said.

She said the material “was an affront to normal moral standards” and to “anyone with any sense of decency”.

The judge said she would set a headline sentence of four years before she took a number of mitigating factors into account, including Kearns' co-operation with gardaí, his guilty plea, and the traumatic events in his life which the court heard led to him downloading the abuse material.

She set a sentence of two years and suspended the final 18 months on a number of conditions.

The court heard the Online Child Exploitation Unit was tipped off to child abuse material being downloaded by an international organisation. This IP address was traced back to Kearns' home after gardaí contacted the internet service provider.

When Kearns' home was searched in April 2019, he immediately admitted to having material on two devices, including his computer.

John Fitzgerald SC, defending, said his client's brother died of cancer in 2017 and Kearns received a diagnosis of cancer himself that year, which led to him look up pornography online. This then progressed to child sexual abuse material.

Mr Fitzgerald said his client has since received counselling and was supported in court by his wife, who wrote a letter to the court, and one of his two children.

Kearns is remorseful and ashamed of his actions, the court heard. He is someone who should have sought help for his issues rather than engaging in this activity, defence counsel submitted.

Judge Codd said she had to send a message out as she jailed Kearns for six months.