colm carty Sexual Abuser

November 2008 Outrage as child porn offender escapes jail A MAN escaped prison yesterday and was fined just €1,000 despite pleading guilty to having 10,000 pornographic images of very young children.

Child safety campaigners last night said the three-year suspended sentence handed down to gardener Colm Carty (39) was “very lenient given the volume and depravity of images/ video clips that he had in his possession”.

“By handing down lenient sentences for possession of abusive images of children, the judiciary is not reflecting the abhorrence of society for this crime,” an Irish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) spokeswoman said.

Carty, of Channel Road, Rush Co Dublin, had pleaded guilty to possession of the images at his home on February 16, 2007, and told gardai his behaviour was “at the level of fantasy but he had no intention of bringing it to reality”.

When asked by gardai if he understood the effects the industry had on the children depicted, Carty replied: “It’s your feelings against theirs.

You feel justified if you are not paying for it.” Regrets When asked if he had regretted his behaviour, he replied: “You always have regrets.

If you are caught you have to take the punishment.

If you are caught you regret it.” One video clip was titled ‘My daughter at five years old’ and showed a young girl being raped.

Last night the ISPCC said it was “appalled” by Carty’s statements to gardai.

“There is clear evidence that those in possession of pornography represent a real risk to children.

We as a society need to be clear and understand that viewing or purchasing child pornography supports and reinforces child abuse.

“For each picture taken, there is a child being abused; someone’s son or daughter is being abused in order to fill the demand for such images.” Yesterday, Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court said, after viewing a sample of the images, that his instant reaction was to impose a custodial sentence, but he had been apprised of Carty’s character through reports from a probation officer, a psychiatrist and the Granada Institute.

He noted that staff from the Granada Institute were uncertain if they had the resources to facilitate Carty’s treatment there as he had been recently diagnosed as having a personality disorder.

Judge Hogan said he thought it was more important that Carty be “afforded an opportunity” to continue treatment and suspended the sentence on condition that he attend either the Granada Institute or a similar organisation that can assist him.

Detective Sergeant Maura Walsh told prosecuting counsel that Carty admitted it was a compulsion and that he had never even got a parking ticket before.

“It’s the excitement that nobody knows — but then everybody knows,” he said during interview.

Det Sgt Walsh said Carty had been downloading child pornography from a host server that carried the phone number associated with the house in which the material was being accessed.

Although Carty told gardai that he was mainly interested in 12- to 16-year-old children, the significant portion of the images confiscated by gardai were of very young children.