A computer technician, who had what gardaí described as "the vilest and most horrendous ever" images of child pornography, has been jailed for three years by Judge Miriam Reynolds at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Judge Reynolds, who viewed some of the material recovered by gardaí from Raymond Daly's computer and external hard drives, said it was necessary for her to see the images because she could not impose sentence in a vacuum.
She said that the images depicted sadism and bestiality on toddlers.
Judge Reynolds gave details of one image of a child bound hand and foot with black tape and being seriously sexually abused while crying out in pain for it to stop.
She said the maximum sentence she could impose was one of five years and the legislation regulated for "mere possession" as against "dissemination", and there was no evidence of Daly having possession of it for commercial gain, but there was evidence of at least one person having been shown it.
Judge Reynolds said the jury was very careful in its deliberations and had "intelligently paid great attention" to the evidence before coming to its unanimous guilty verdicts on the four charges.
Daly (41), Ellensborough Way, Kiltipper, had been found guilty by a jury on May 16th on four charges of knowingly having child pornography in his possession on dates from June 1st, 2003, to July 5th, 2004.
The jury of eight women and four men brought in the guilty verdict on day five of his trial.
Tim O'Leary SC (with Kieran Kelly), defending, had told Judge Reynolds that Daly accepted he was going to be jailed and submitted that he came before the court as a person of previous good character, whose one previous conviction was for simple possession of a drug more than 20 years ago for which he was fined £10.
Mr O'Leary said "these offences punish the guilty in any event" and the jury's verdict had "a devastating effect" on him already due to the "media witch-hunt" following his conviction.
He said Daly was a highly qualified person at his work, with a BSc degree and membership of the Institute of Engineers in Ireland.
He was well known where he lived and was involved in charitable work, including parachute jumping to raise funds for good causes.
"This is a case of possession simpliciter with no question of him distributing the material," Mr O'Leary said.