Teenager caught with child abuse material gets suspended term

By Sonya McLean

A teenager who was caught with over 1,800 images of child abuse material after gardaí were alerted to an exchange of material on an instant messaging app has been given a suspended sentence.

Nikita Dvoynin (24) of The View, Hunters Run, Clonee, Dublin 15, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of child pornography at his home on April 9, 2021.

Detective Garda Brendan Cafferkey told Jane McCudden BL, prosecuting, that gardaí were contacted after it was noted that child explicit material had been uploaded using the Discord app.

The exchange was traced to Dvoynin’s address and a warrant was obtained to search his home.

During the search, Dvoynin handed over a number of digital devices that were later analysed.

He admitted to officers that the devices would contain “child pornography”.

One of the devices seized was a computer that Dvoynin had built himself.

Det Gda Cafferkey said that Dvoynin later made a voluntary statement outlining what methods he  used to get the material.

The images were categorised and out of total 1,838, 1,141 images were deemed to be very explicit and involved the abuse of children as young as two years old.

Some of the images were found stored in a secured folder on Dvoynin’s mobile phone.

He was arrested again in July 2023 following the analysis and co-operated fully with the investigation. He has no previous convictions.

Det Gda Cafferkey agreed with John Berry SC defending that Dvoynin has not come to garda attention since the search of his home.

He accepted that he was 19 years old at the time and immediately co-operated with the search.

Mr Berry handed in a report from a neuropsychologist who concluded that Dvoynin has issues with social interaction and non-verbal communication.

The report stated that Dvoynin would develop an intense interest in certain things and that he had numerous online relationships.

The court heard he struggled to make a distinction between these relationships and real-life relationships.

Mr Berry said his client was introduced to pornography at a young age.

He said Dvoynin is insistent that he would not engage with a child in real life.

He said Dvoynin is remorseful for his involvement and asked the court to consider a non-custodial sentence.

Judge Martin Nolan acknowledged Dvoynin pleaded guilty at an early stage, fully co-operated with the garda investigation and has no previous convictions.

He accepted that he clearly has a problem with social interaction and acknowledged that he is still a young man.

He imposed a two year sentence which he suspended in full on strict conditions including that Dvoynin engage with the Probation Service for 12 months.