GARRY BYRNE SENTENCED IN PORTSMOUTH FOR CHILD SEX OFFENCES
Garry Byrne, a 55-year-old man, was discovered lying in bed at the home he shared with a married couple, while exchanging images with over 400 individuals across 32 different groups.Authorities found that he had been copying his favorite images from his Samsung phone to two laptops.
Portsmouth Crown Court heard that Byrne admitted to having a disturbing sexual interest in children aged between six and 15.
He also possessed videos depicting abuse of an 18-month-old toddler boy.
When arrested at his residence, Byrne, who is the co-founder of GDC Waste Limited in Portsmouth, promptly acknowledged that police would find child exploitation images on his electronic devices, including two laptops, a phone, and a USB stick.
A total of 4,211 indecent images of children were located, comprising 755 videos and 614 still images classified as category A, which is considered the most severe level.
Prosecutor Sally Mertens stated, “On the phone, there were 27,329 images which were ungraded but had been flash reviewed by police.
The majority seem to have been of children and would fall into categories A, B, and C.” Ms.
Mertens also revealed that Byrne, who has since moved from his home on Langley Road, Fratton, has previous convictions for attempting to incite gross indecency with a six-year-old boy in 2004.
Further, Byrne distributed 56 images via WhatsApp groups, but the court was told these images were received by multiple individuals, meaning they were shared more than 15,000 times in total.
Judge William Ashworth commented, “Each of these images represents a moment, a memory, for those children—likely taken when they were in environments with abusive adults, possibly away from their parents or being abused by them—subjected to horrifying experiences that will probably leave lifelong scars.” He emphasized that such images sustain the demand that fuels ongoing child abuse behind closed doors.
The judge added that Byrne shared these exploitative images with “thousands and thousands” of people through WhatsApp groups, with the charges indicating he distributed approximately 104,000 images.
Ms.
Mertens stated, “He admitted to having a sexual interest in young boys.
He said that, despite his previous conviction for attempting to incite gross indecency with a child, he had never approached a child.” Byrne claimed that viewing these images was his form of release and believed it prevented him from offending against children.
Byrne, who struggled with chronic alcoholism—having consumed roughly two bottles of vodka daily until recently—pleaded guilty to three counts of distributing and creating indecent images of children, covering the period from May 2017 to February 2018.
Daniel Reilly, representing Byrne in mitigation, explained that Byrne was expelled from his family home at age 13 after revealing to his Irish Catholic father that he was gay.
He then stayed with friends and, by age 14, entered into prostitution in London.
Reilly further noted that Byrne had reduced his alcohol consumption by half, sought counseling, and had seen a psychiatrist.
He was prepared to join a counseling program had he not been jailed.
The court heard that Byrne also searched “why am I a paedophile?” on his phone.
Ultimately, Byrne was sentenced to three years in prison, placed on the sex offenders' register for life, and subjected to a lifelong sexual harm prevention order.
