Court hears father of one had the worst of child porn images
A 24-year-old father of one accessed some of the worst child porn images according to a detective from the National Child Exploitation Unit who told Sligo Circuit Court he had difficulty viewing them.
Before the court was Stephen Finan, formerly of 16 Collery Drive, Cranmore who had pleaded guilty at an earlier sitting of having 440 images and one movie on a PC and two images on a laptop at his home on September 20 th 2014.
Giving evidence at his sentencing hearing last week, Detective Garda Cliff Cullen of the National Child Exploitation Unit explained that Finan was detected after his IP address was identified through a targeted operation.
Gardaí executed a warrant on September 20 th, 2014, at the home of Finan where he had been living with his parents.
Finan was in bed when gardaí arrived and it was heard that when it was explained to him, Finan began crying and said, “I’m glad ye called, to be honest, I just want this to stop.”
Two devices were removed from his bedroom, an Acer laptop and an Alienware computer used for gaming.
Det Gda Cullen told the court that while the images had been deleted they were recovered via specialist software.
The detective detailed that of the 440 images, 304 were characterised as ‘Grade 1’, being at the higher end of the explicit scale, meaning that the images were of children observing, or engaging in sexual acts.
The children in the images ranged from one year old up to 17 years. Of these 304 images, the ages ranged from children between two years and six years of age.
Det Gda Cullen told the court that though he had been in is job for seven years, he found it difficult to view the images.
Asked if the images were some of the worst he had seen, he replied ‘Yes’, adding that in some images children were clearly distressed and sometimes unconcious.
On some of Finan’s search history recovered on August 29 th, 2014 he searched, ‘You’re 16, you’re a paedophile, you don’t want to hurt anyone, what do you do now.”
Det Gda Cullen explained that Finan, who had a 15-month-old son at the time, used ‘peer-to-peer software in order to access the images, which is what spurred the investigation.
He added that peer-to-peer software was when one person downloads a programme to their machine and another person downloads the same programme.
If a person searches for a specific file, a person with that match can then share the file. Det Gda Cullen outlined that Finan was not distributing images. He said there was also 1,017 file searches, including ‘child lover’ and ‘PTHC’ pre teen hard core.
Det Gda Cullen described the evidence retrieved as ‘an extensive catalogue’ and that Finan made a ‘conserted effort’ to find the images. File names had been searched for throughout 2014, from May to August. All images had been deleted off the laptop and Alienware computer prior to the garda search warrant being executed.
Defending barrister Ms Eileen O’Leary SC with Mr Joe Barnes BL, instructed byMr Mark Mullaney, solicitor, outlined that the Alienware computer was a ‘sophisticated gaming device’ and not for the purpose of pornography.
She said her client had no subscriptions to websites, had not distributed any files, was not part of any paedophile group and had not discussed images with anyone.
When questioned in relation to the peer-topeer sharing software, Det Gda Cullen noted that the sharing software was not illegal and can be used for sharing music, among other things. However, he added that over time its use had increased for child exploitation.
It was heard that neither of the devices had passwords or login details and were free to be accessed by anyone in the house. In relation to Finan’s search about being a 16-year-old paedophile and not wanting to hurt anyone, the detective said this was ‘quite rare’ that he would see this search.
Further evidence of the investigation was provided by Det Gda Paul Casey who outlined that on the day of the warrant execution Finan was asked a series of questions in order to help the Computer Crime Investigation Unit with its investigation.
Questions ranged from asking him who had access to his devices, to how long he spends online. During this questioning, Finan outlined that he normally logged on to a device when he woke at approximately midday and stays online till 3am.
Asked if he had ac- cessed child porn, the accused said he used Thor (dark web where users are anonymous) every few months. When asked how he had developed an interest in child porn he replied, ‘It just grew, I don’t know’.
Finan described child porn as ‘sick’ when gardaí asked him to define it. Finan told gardaí he had last accessed child porn ‘over one month, to two months ago’ from the date of apprehension.
On April 13th, 2018 Finan was brought in for interview again in order to view the images and he declined to do so.
He was arrested on September 20 th, 2018 where he was charged and subsequently entered a guilty plea last November.
The court was told that Finan came from a ‘respectable family’ who were supportive, but were ‘upset and ashamed’ as a result of the crimes.
Ms O’Leary said Finan’s family were targeted and his mother has been accosted in the street and also asked to leave the family home. His sister had also been threatened and the family had been to the gardaí to report their concerns. Finan no longer lives at the family’s address due to the family’s safety concerns, after it was publicly known where he resided.
Ms O’Leary also made the court aware that her client had been identified on a Facebook page ‘Northwest Paedophile hunters’. Since he has been charged Finan has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
The court heard that following his detection, Finan has continued to have regular supervised contact with his now, 5-year-old son and the mother of his child is supportive with this.
The HSE and Tusla were notified that he was a father.
In a Probation Report furnished to the court, it outlined that Finan was unemployed at the time of detection, and had moved back to his parents’ home in early 2014. He had a small number of friends and was isolated from many and had been emotionally and physically abused in school. This was cited as being a contributing factor to his behav- iour. In March 2015 Finan had attended his GP suffering from anxiety and subsequently sought counselling with Cosc - The National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence.
To date, he has attended 48 appointments where it was discussed that Finan knew accessing the images were illegal and that he had ‘conflicted feelings’ about his behaviour. While he was ‘ disturbed’ he communicated that he found it hard to desist and since 2014 he had not accessed any such material.
It was outlined that he knew it was problematic in early 2014 when he moved home and had been accessing the internet up to 20 hours per day.
Since being charged he has been verbally abused and has lost most of his friends.
The court heard that a risk assessment tool for sexual offences was performed on Finan and showed him to be at ‘moderate risk of reoffending’. The court heard that the moderate risk only relates to his age category and the fact that he is not in a relationship.
Ms O’Leary said her client was making ‘strident efforts’ to rehabilitate himself and was genuinely remorseful and ashamed.
“His relationship broke up, he had little routine and had nothing to do. He went down a rabbit hole and couldn’t get back up,” said Ms O’Leary, adding that he had a good relationship with his son. She added that rather than a custodial sentence, it would be more beneficial to society if Finan continued with his rehabilitation.
Ms O’Leary said her client is a registered sex offender and that is ‘a sentence’ for him.
She said her client was a young man that took a ‘very dark turn’ and asked the judge to be as lenient as possible and not to impose a custodial sentence. Judge Comerford put the matter back to today (Tuesday) for sentencing.