Dublin man caught with over 50,000 child sexual abuse images is jailed

By Fiona Ferguson and Eimear Dodd

A “highly technically proficient” man who was caught with over 50,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse material has been jailed for three years.

Niall Syms (70) of Station Close, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of child sexual abuse material, known in law as child pornography, at his former family home on March 3rd, 2018.

He further pleaded guilty to distribution of the material on dates between November 2017 and March 2018. He has no previous convictions.

Passing sentence on Tuesday, Judge Orla Crowe said Syms was an “active cog” in the wheel of the distribution of this material. She said the “sheer number” of images and videos was aggravating.

Judge Crowe noted that despite Syms's age, he was “highly technically proficient” and had an “unusually high level of knowledge and experience” of computers due to his professional background in IT.

The judge set a headline sentence of six years, which she reduced to three years taking the mitigation and Syms's personal circumstances into account.

Judge Crowe noted that Syms had completed a “considerable amount of work” towards rehabilitation, but that a custodial sentence must be imposed. She backdated the sentence to January 23rd, when he went into custody.

The court heard the delay in the case arose due to a backlog in material for analysis in the computer crime division, which led to a delay of several years before the results of analysis were available.

The garda accepted that there was hardship to Syms in having the case hanging over him.

Detective Garda Darragh Phelan told John Gallagher BL, prosecuting, that the offence came to light when gardaí were contacted by an international agency which reported suspect activities at an address associated with Syms. Gardaí obtained a search warrant and searched the home.

Gardaí recovered a considerable number of computers, hard drives and phones. Syms was cautioned at the scene and made some outline admissions that there would be child sexual abuse material on some devices. He said he had rarely accessed the material.

The devices were sent for analysis, a process which took a number of years, and child abuse material was discovered on four devices. A total of 53,890 images and 2,055 videos were found.

The majority of the images involved child exposure, with just over 11,000 on the child explicit scale. Some of the images involved serious sexual abuse of children from the age of four to teenagers.

One folder contained 26 images and six videos of a seven-to-nine year old child being digitally and orally raped by an adult male.

The court heard Syms had qualifications in computers and made his living in the computer industry.

The distribution charge arose through the BitTorrent technology Syms used to download the images. As he downloaded images from around the world, the images he had were available to be uploaded.

Syms told the gardaí he did not leave the system running so the images would not be distributed but the investigation found the images were available to be uploaded.

Gda Phelan agreed with Gerardine Small SC, defending, that gardaí found him polite and courteous, that he had given them passwords and told them they would find some of the material.

The garda agreed with counsel that there had been no re-offending and Syms had attended therapy. There was a loss of his marriage and family as a direct consequence of his actions.

Ms Small said there had always been a guilty plea in relation to the possession charge and the disputed aspect had been the distribution charge as a result of residual software activity when the images were downloaded. She said the automatic sharing brought the activity within the ambit of distribution.

The garda replied that an ordinary person might not be aware of that, but with Syms's qualifications there was no doubt he did know.

The garda agreed with Ms Small there was no commercial gain or setting up of websites involved.

Ms Small referenced difficulties outlined in the psychological report before the court. She said Syms had taken immediate steps to rehabilitate himself and had undergone over 400 hours of therapy.

Counsel said he had an extensive work history and has ongoing medical difficulties. She said around the time of the offending, there had been a progressive deterioration in his marriage and isolation.

She said there was a significant lapse in time between the detection and coming before the court and that period undoubtedly weighed heavily on him. She said this was a factor recognised by the higher courts.

She handed in testimonials and said a friend was in court to support Syms. She said the material outlined the positive aspects of his personality, that he is remorseful and that he has taken responsibility for his actions.

She said he had a small reliable network of adult peers who are aware of the offence and provide regular practical support. Syms wrote a letter in which he outlined his remorse and said he was mindful of the hurt he had caused.