Former civil servant jailed for distributing child sex abuse material

Fiona Ferguson

A former civil servant who was convicted of the possession and distribution of child sex abuse material has been jailed for four and a half years.

David Smyth (55) of Jamestown Avenue, Inchicore, was convicted by a jury earlier this year of distribution of child pornography on January 30, 2016 and possession of child pornography on dates between November 1, 2015 and May 21, 2016.

He has no previous convictions and continues to deny any part in the offending.

The maximum sentence for possession of the material is five years and for distribution is 14 years.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the offences were discovered following an alert from US authorities and gardaí began an investigation which eventually linked various online aliases to Smyth.

Judge Jonathan Dunphy said the aggravating factor in relation to the distribution included the seriousness of the charge, the number of files and the required planning and premeditation by the use of an alias to engage with the undercover agent.

The judge also observed this was not a victimless crime and that real harm was done to very young children who were the subject of vile offences.

He said Smyth had fully contested the trial and laid the blame at someone else’s door. He could not be given credit for a plea and had no insight into his offending.

Judge Dunphy noted a number of people were in court to support Smyth, but that he had been suspended from his employment and will now lose his job. He noted the issues outlined in a psychological report before the court and that Smyth had previous excellent work history.

He noted the ongoing medical issues and work Smyth had done in his community. He said he accepted there would be a factor of public shame which would be brought on him. He noted Smyth had lost relationships and may well continue to do so.

He noted Smyth had cooperated with the investigation, handing over PINs and passwords. He noted a letter to the court from Smyth which accepts the offences are horrendous but he does not accept the jury verdict.

He said the factors relating to the possession were similar, albeit limited to four images.

The judge said the very young age of the children in the four images was aggravating. He noted that viewing this material creates a market demand leading to children being exploited.

Judge Dunphy imposed concurrent sentences totalling four and half years.

Sergeant Nathan McKenna told Lisa Dempsey BL, prosecuting, that the offences came to light when a special agent in the United States involved in an undercover investigation of people using the Kik app had an online interaction with an online alias contended by the prosecution to be Smyth.

This alias engaged in online conversation with the agent on the Kik app and shared illegal images with her. He then directed her to a Dropbox and shared a link in the hope of trading material. The agent accessed the link and found 100 images of child sexual abuse material.

The IP address was traced to Ireland and gardai acting on this information searched Smyth’s then address. He co-operated with the search giving gardai PIN codes to his phone which was seized. He denied any offending.

He attended voluntarily for interview and gave further details of legitimate emails. He contended the usernames had nothing to do with him. He claimed another person had access to his phone.

Four images were recovered from his phone and two of these files were the same as the files sent to the agent while she was conversing with the alias. Deleted Kik username information was also recovered and Dropbox was deleted in the days prior to the search.