March 2008 Man jailed over child abuse images A software engineer has been sentenced to three years in prison for the possession of almost 16,000 images of child abuse. Gary Smith, who is originally from Manchester, pleaded guilty to possessing the images at his home at 9 Ashbrook, Pearse Road in Sligo in January last year. Gardaí were alerted to Smith by police in Germany investigating the dissemination of pornography involving children. Operation Max uncovered a website for sharing and downloading images of child abuse. Information from Operation Max led gardaí to 43-year-old Gary Smith and they discovered 15,837 images on two memory sticks, nine hard drives and 20 CDs and DVDs in his possession. Sligo Circuit Court was told that Gary Smith was a loner who has been living in Ireland since 1994 and in Sligo since the summer of 1995. The court heard that he is highly intelligent, has qualifications in maths, statistics and computers and wrote his own software to search for images of child abuse. But his defence counsel, Colm Smyth, said a psychiatric report indicates that Gary Smith had a brain disorder caused by a road traffic accident in adolescence and this led to his offending. He said he needs and wants medical treatment. However Judge Anthony Kennedy said it was extraordinary to make the jump that this resulted in this specific deviancy. Judge Kennedy said this was not a victimless crime and that ‘many, many children had to be abused for these images to exist’. Judge Kennedy said Smith had no empathy for the effect of his crimes and no comprehension of their gravity. He sentenced him to three years in prison and his name is to go on the sex offenders’ register for five years with two years post-release supervision The judge also ordered that the material Gary Smith had in his possession be destroyed.