Man jailed for filming children and men in public toilets

By Claire Henry

A man who filmed hundreds of men and some children urinating in public toilets has been jailed for two years.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Colin Brady (35) of Kilgraigue, Kilcloon, Co Meath, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography, one count of exposure in a public area and recording videos of another without their knowledge or consent on dates between  May 2021 and September 2022 at different locations within Dublin. He has no previous convictions.

Passing sentence on Thursday, Judge Martin Nolan said this was an “unusual case”, noting “the court hasn’t encountered this particular type of misbehaviour in its experience”.

He said Brady’s behaviour was “prolonged and repeated”.

He said the court inferred from the evidence that Brady’s “intent [was] to video the men” and the children were recorded “by accident”, but the judge noted that Brady did not delete this footage.

Having considered the mitigation and Brady’s personal circumstances, the judge imposed a two-year prison sentence.

Detective Garda Kevin Bold told Jane Murphy, BL, prosecuting, that Brady was seen acting suspiciously in the toilets of a pub in Tallaght.

A man who had entered the toilet noticed that Brady was standing at one end of the urinal with his phone sticking out of his pocket. The man returned to use the toilet a time later, and Brady was again in the toilet now at the other end of the urinal with his mobile phone still sticking out of his pocket. The man then went and told a member of security working in the pub.

The court heard that Brady was found a short time later in a different toilet within the pub, his phone was taken, and he was detained until the gardai arrived.

He was arrested and said, “my job is gone”. A second phone was found on his person and seized. Both mobile phones were sent for analysis, and Brady gave them the pin codes for both.

Det Gda Bold said Brady’s home, which he lived in with his parents, was also searched. Electronics, along with a number of SIM cards and several SD cards, were seized.

Brady told the gardai that they would find material of a similar nature on these devices. 1,355 videos were found on the SD cards. Brady took these videos of men using urinals in different public toilets around Dublin. The court heard that 25 videos depicted children using urinals. Videos of Brady masturbating other males were also found on the SD cards. The garda said that the videos of children fell into category one, which is the lowest level when categorising child pornography.

The offending occurred in Brady’s workplace, pubs, shopping centre toilets, and petrol station toilets. The garda told the court that seven men were identified in the videos, one of whom was an off-duty garda. Brady made a voluntary interview to the gardai. He said that hundreds and hundreds of men had been videoed in total.

Det Gda Bold agreed with Geraldine Small, SC, defending, that her client entered a very early guilty pleas and that Brady comes from a very respectable family.

The garda agreed with counsel that Brady’s father was present when his home was searched and told his son to write down the phone passcodes, which he did. He also agreed that when items were seized from Brady’s home, he admitted that material of a similar nature would be found.

Ms Small said that 1,365 videos were found in total, but only 25 contained videos of children. She asked Detective Bold if it was fair to say that his focus was on adult males, to which he agreed.

Det Gda Bold also agreed that there is no question of Brady sharing or distributing any of these images to which he agreed.

Counsel said her client is a man with a good work ethic and history. She said at the time, he was in a very bad place and had struggled with his sexuality. The court was told that Brady had engaged with counselling since his arrest, and documents to show this were handed into the court.

Ms Small handed documents into the court, which contained a letter from Brady’s mother, describing her shock and horror. She also noted the hurt and stress caused to the injured parties.

She asked the court to take into account the category of the material found and the percentage of videos that contained children from the total. She asked the court to be as lenient as possible and said her client is a man who would find incarceration very difficult.