Man gets suspended sentence for having child abuse material

By Eimear Dodd

A man who had over 1,700 images of child abuse material in his possession has been told by a judge that he should be “appropriately ashamed” for his actions.

Judge Martin Nolan made the comment today  after imposing a suspended two-year prison sentence on Daniel Doyle (32) at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

He said this was a “serious matter” as a large number of images and videos were found on a laptop and phone owned by Doyle.

The judge noted the mitigation included Doyle’s guilty plea, his co-operation with gardai and his good work history.

He said Doyle “seems at this point to be making his way in life” but noted that he is on the sex offenders register which “rightly places burdens on him”.

The judge said he would not impose a custodial sentence as there was a lack of aggravating factors in this case, such as previous convictions.

Judge Nolan continued by saying that the conviction itself is a “serious matter” and Doyle “should be appropriately ashamed of this behaviour”.

Doyle of Coolevin, Ballybrack, Co. Dublin pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on June 9. 2019.

He has no previous convictions and has not come to recent garda attention.

A local garda told Simon Matthews BL, prosecuting, that gardai received information from the Online Child Exploitation Unit about a person accessing child abuse material via the social media site, Kick.

An IP address in Ballybrack was provided by Virgin Media to gardai, who searched the property on June 9, 2019.

Doyle along with other family members were present in the house during the search.

The court heard Doyle became emotional and said he had been looking up child pornography.

He handed over his phone and laptop to gardai. The phone and the laptop were sent for analysis and  child abuse material was identified on both devices.

The court heard that 1,760 images and 282 videos of child abuse material were identified.

These included images of children with their genital areas exposed, children engaged in explicit sexual activity and child anime.

Doyle was arrested by appointment in November 2022 and during interview, he made admissions to gardai.

The investigating garda agreed with James B Dwyer SC, defending, that an analysis of his client’s laptop was not completed until 2022 due to resource issues within the analysis unit.

It was further accepted that Doyle had moved to the United Kingdom, but returned to Ireland to be arrested, interviewed and later charged.

The garda agreed that Doyle said during interview that he had sole access to the devices and spoke about the shame this incident has caused him.

He also told gardai during interview that he felt confident after therapy that he is not attracted to children.

It was also accepted that Doyle is on the sex offenders register and is subject to regular checks by the police in the UK.

Mr Dwyer told the court his client began attending therapy shortly after gardai conducted the search and handed in a letter from Doyle’s therapist, which states he has demonstrated insight and remorse.

Doyle was living in London, but returned to Ireland following the breakdown of a relationship and the offending occurred around this time, counsel said.

He has since moved back to the United Kingdom.

A number of references and letters were handed to the court from Doyle’s employer, family, partner and friends.

Mr Dwyer submitted that a large amount of material was found, but some of the content was duplicated.

He said that there is a “tendency to accumulate a library” in cases of this nature, noting that his client has not come to garda attention since.

He noted this is “not a victimless crime”, but asked the court to take into account his client’s guilty plea, co-operation, lack of previous convictions and efforts to “grapple” with his issues.