Computer expert jailed for child porn
Gary Smith outside Sligo District Court yesterday where he was sentenced to three years' jail for child porn offences
Wednesday March 12 2008
Judge Anthony Kennedy, who sentenced Manchester born Gary Smith to three years in prison at Sligo Circuit Court, told him that many, many children had been abused to enable the material found in his possession to exist.
Smith had pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography at his home at Ashbrook, Pearse Road, Sligo, on January 11, 2007.
Judge Kennedy, who stressed that this was not a victimless crime, also ordered that Smith be placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years; that he receive post-release supervision for two years; and that he receive appropriate treatment or counselling on his release.
The court heard that Smith came to the attention of gardai as a result of a German investigation known as Operation Max into the dissemination of child pornography. The material at the centre of this probe included a video portraying the rape and sexual assault of a four-year-old girl.
Smith initially denied to gardai that he had accessed child pornography, after their investigation led to his place of work.
But when they arrived at his home later that day he handed them a shopping bag containing nine hard-drives and 20 CDs and DVDs containing child pornography. Images A friend of his was in the house and the material was about to be taken away when gardai arrived. Garda Sgt Niall Gordon told Donal Keane, prosecuting, that Smith said he deleted any images showing a child crying or distressed.
But, imposing sentence, Judge Kennedy detailed some of the horrific images involved which depicted children as young as four, five or six, being abused.
Smith had told gardai that while he had been interested in adult pornography for a number of years, he had become interested in child pornography only 18 months before his arrest.
He had come across a video of a young teenage girl, aged about 12 or 13, dancing naked and had found this to be very erotic. This type of material became a compulsion. Smith had been living in Sligo since 1995 and was described as a “loner”.
