MARTIN FREDERIC DALY SENTENCED IN JERSEY FOR SEX OFFENCES AND FAILURE TO SURRENDER DEVICES
A convicted sex offender, Martin Frederic Daly, has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison in Jersey for failing to surrender electronic devices containing over 22,000 indecent images of children.Daly, aged 47, appeared before the Superior Number, a court panel convened for the most serious cases, to be sentenced for multiple offenses.
He faced charges of four counts of breaching restraining orders—orders originally imposed after he sexually assaulted a nine-year-old girl—and four counts of downloading indecent images of children.
Under the restraining orders issued by the Royal Court, Daly was required to hand over any computer or electronic device capable of accessing the internet or storing images, so that police could examine them.
He was also prohibited from using devices that did not retain internet browsing history.
During police visits between January and September 2018, officers visited Daly’s home on four separate occasions.
Each time, Daly failed to produce some of his devices, providing only his mobile phones.
On the final visit, officers saw Daly using a laptop but, when asked if he possessed any other devices besides his phone, he responded, 'no.' Eventually, Daly handed over the laptop, on which police found adult pornography and a sexualised story involving pre-teen girls.
Daly explained his failure to surrender the laptop was "inadvertent" during one incident, caused by heavy drinking in another, and that he panicked because he feared trouble for not handing it over initially.
A forensic examination by the High-Tech Crime Unit revealed that Daly may have connected other devices to the laptop, which had not been seized by officers.
In total, police recovered 13 additional devices including seven storage devices or memory cards.
Daly claimed he did not disclose these because he thought they were not covered by the restraining orders or simply forgot about them, although he admitted some could contain illegal material or child pornography.
Authorities recovered a total of 22,042 indecent images and movies on the devices, which Crown Advocate Richard Pedley described as "a high volume." Pedley noted, "Any number at three figures is considered a large amount," and highlighted that most images were at the lowest level of the Copine Scale—a system used to rate the severity of child abuse images—though 1,032 were classified at the most serious level.
The Crown Advocate explained that Daly had collected the images over an 11-month period, averaging around 50 images or movies downloaded daily.
He further noted reports characterizing Daly as a "clever man, capable of deception," with one suggesting he posed a high risk of committing further sexual offences.
The prosecution moved for a sentence of six and a half years—two years for breaching the restraining orders and four and a half years for downloading indecent images—and requested that the devices be destroyed.
Daly’s defence, represented by Advocate Lee Ingram, explained that Daly had initially reserved his plea to ensure "duplicates" were not counted as separate images.
Ingram argued that Daly should still benefit from a full plea discount, as is customary.
Ingram also detailed Daly’s personal struggles, including a "downward spiral" following his marriage breakdown, which led him to drink increasingly as a way to cope.
Daly has accepted his punishment and does not see it as unjust, according to his lawyer, who added that Daly recognizes the need for "to undertake some work during his sentence to address the issues surrounding his offending." Concluding his address, Advocate Ingram stated that Daly fully accepted "his wrongdoing and the inevitable custodial sentence" and expressed remorse for his actions.
"He apologises for his failure to surrender the devices at the first opportunity," he said.
"He also apologises to his family for the disappointment and anguish his offending has caused." Royal Court Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith, sitting with Jurats Kim Avery, Elizabeth Dulake, Collette Crill, Anthony Olsen, and Jerry Ramsden, concurred with the Crown’s assessment and sentenced Daly to six and a half years in prison.
The court also imposed restraining orders effective for ten years.
Daly is to remain on the Sex Offenders' Register until at least 2027.
