Prisoner convicted of child porn offences banned from computer course

A Dublin man jailed for possession of child pornography and coercing young girls to send him sexually graphic images has been ordered not to take part in a computer programming course.

Matthew Horan (26) was sentenced last January to nine-and-a-half years with the final two years suspended. Judge Martin Nolan had ordered a probation report on that date into what interventions and services the prison service could provide to reform Horan.

On Thursday, Lorcan Staines BL, prosecuting, told the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court the probation report confirmed the "Better Lives" programme would be available to Horan. He said the report also asked the court to make an order that a certain type of course not be entered into by Horan.

Judge Nolan ordered that Horan not be allowed to enter into a computer programming course as outlined in the probation report.

He also ordered Horan enter a bond to be of good behaviour for two years from the date of his release, undergo two years post-release supervision and avail of all services available to him.

During the sentence hearing last January, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Horan used Skype, Snapchat, Instagram and Kik, an anonymous instant messaging application, to send and receive images and videos from six identified child users in Ireland and nine unknown users around the world.

Forensic examination

A forensic examination of Horan’s computer uncovered recorded Skype calls between him and two nine year-old-girls, both individually and together. The recordings included footage of these girls engaging in graphic sexual acts.

Horan also took part in sexually explicit text conversations with the girls, during which there would be an exchange of photos. Horan would use Kik to share child porn images and videos with unidentified users from around the world, most of whom claimed to be young teenagers.

He threatened to share an 11-year-old girl’s nude images to her social media if she didn’t send him more graphic photos.

In the text exchange between them, this child repeatedly told Horan that she would kill herself. He then continued to coerce her to send more images, the court heard.

Horan, of St John’s Crescent, Clondalkin, Dublin pleaded guilty to a count each of sexually exploiting two girls within the State on dates between April 1st and November 23rd, 2014.

He pleaded guilty to two more counts of sexually exploiting a child and one count of distributing child porn on dates in 2015. He further pleaded guilty to possessing child porn at his address on July 11th, 2015.

He pleaded guilty to three further counts of sexually exploiting female children through Snapchat and Instagram in the State on dates between May 21st, 2015 and July 7th, 2016.

He also pleaded guilty to possessing child porn on a mobile phone at his home on July 7th, 2016. He has no previous convictions.