By Claire Henry and Isabel Hayes
A taxi driver who was caught in possession of explicit child abuse material described by a judge as “grotesque and offensive” has been jailed for one year.
Donal Kelly (60) was caught with 120 videos and 303 images of children and infants being raped and sexual abused, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.
Kelly formerly of Seagrange Ave, Baldoyle, Dublin and more recently of Killaha, Kenmare East, Kerry attempted to explain he continued watching the material because he was of the view it showed a “loving interaction” between the children and their abusers, the court heard.
Sentencing him today, Judge Elma Sheahan said the court heard of this explanation with “disbelief” and that it showed Kelly had limited insight into his offending.
She noted he has since engaged in therapy and has made significant progress since he started seeing a psychologist.
Judge Sheahan noted a number of aggravating factors in the case, including the “depravity” of the child abuse material, which she described as “grotesque and offensive”.
She noted one video depicted an abused infant being force-fed urine. “This accused provided a market and demand for such criminality,” the judge said
She noted Kelly admitted his guilt and cooperated with gardai.
He has committed to getting treatment for his offending and his mental health issues. He has lost his taxi licence and will be placed on the sex offender’s register.
However, the judge said the offences had passed the threshold of a custodial sentence.
She handed down a sentence of 18 months with the final six months suspended on a number of conditions.
Kelly pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of child pornography at his home address on September 3, 2021.
He has no previous convictions. The court heard he is a divorced man who has raised a family.
At a previous sentence hearing, Garda Sean Parker told Garret Baker SC, prosecuting, that gardaí became interested in a certain mobile phone number and google account and traced the owner to a property in the Baldoyle area.
Gardaí applied for a search warrant and in September 2020, they carried out a search of the house.
Kelly was home at the time and when asked by gardaí if they would find images on his phone, he replied: “Yes”.
Gardaí found images and videos on two mobile phones and on three separate email accounts.
The court heard 120 videos and 303 images depicting children being subjected to explicit sexual acts were found.
Six of the videos showed babies and toddlers aged between one and three years being forced to give oral sex, while other videos showed children of the same age being raped.
Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, said that his client had been cooperative with gardaí and provided them with pin numbers for the mobile phones they seized.
He said his client pleaded guilty at an early stage and has kept the gardaí up to date on all his movements.
Mr O’Higgins said watching child abuse material was something his client “drifted” into.
He outlined a number of mental health issues his client suffers with.
He said Kelly was making good progress with his psychologist and he urged Judge Sheahan to consider a jail term as a last resort.