A judge has expressed concerns about children’s unsupervised access to the internet while sentencing a boy who was 13 when he sexually abused his six-year-old sister.
He also took photographs of her naked and uploaded 64 images to a social media website.
The child was so identifiable in those images that gardaí who first called to the house to investigate the offence recognised her instantly, the Central Criminal Court heard.
The court was told the boy, who is from the south of the country, had unsupervised access to the internet from a young age. He got a tablet computer at the age of five.
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He later told gardaí he first viewed pornography when he was six-years-old
Sentencing the teenager, who is now 16, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring said at the centre of the case was a six-year-old girl who was abused by her older brother and images of her, over which she has no control, have been placed on the internet.
“That a child was given a tablet at the age of five-years-old and by the age of seven was accessing pornography takes my breath away,” Ms Justice Ring said.
She said “no adult would hesitate to take a box of matches away from a seven-year-old” before she referred to the damage the unchecked use of the internet caused not only to the boy but also to his sister.
Ms Justice Ring said it was something that “the tech world in general” and “lawmakers” needed to do something about.
“There is no best interest argument for children to have unfettered access to the internet just because they can,” the judge said.
At a previous sentence hearing in June, the court heard the family was isolated in a rural area, living off the grid.
They had no running water, but they had electricity and internet access. Their father was significantly older than their mother and had died a number of years previously.
The children were no longer attending school and, as Ms Justice Ring said, “were allegedly being home schooled”, but had no medical or dental supervision.
The boy later told gardaí he was accessing pornography 12 hours a day.
A garda sergeant giving evidence told Eilis Brennan SC, prosecuting, how gardaí were alerted to inappropriate images on a social media platform. The connected account was traced back to the children’s home.
The images included ones of the girl’s and the boy’s private parts and her engaging in sexual activity with him.
The boy, who is in state care, came forward to the court on signed pleas.
He admitted six incidences of oral rape, nine charges of production of what is legally termed as child pornography and five charges of distribution of that material on dates between June and December 2022.
Ms Brennan read out a victim impact statement prepared by the girl, who is now aged eight.
The girl said she “feels much happier” now and said the foster family with whom she has been living since gardaí called to her then home in December 2022 “feels like home”.
“When I think about him I feel a bit scared,” the girl said, adding she would really like her brother to write her a letter of apology because, she said, when people do bad things they “say sorry”.
The garda sergeant agreed with Michael Bowman SC, defending, that the all children were not properly supervised.
The officer accepted the teenager had unrestricted internet access from the age of five. The garda agreed the teenager was manipulated by others online to post these photographs.
On Tuesday, Ms Justice Ring imposed four-and-a-half years’ detention on the boy, but she suspended the term in full on condition he engaged with the Probation Service for three years. He is to be strictly supervised by the service.
“I am satisfied that the current regime he is following is challenging and difficult. He is being closely monitored and is being rehabilitated in the best interest of not only himself and his sister but also the general public,” the judge said.
She had noted in mitigation he was fully co-operative with the Garda investigation and noted the “conditions and circumstances he experienced in his home”.
