Man got under-10s to pose for child porn
Christopher Thomas, also known as Christopher Charles Doe, 61, was sentenced by Judge Patrick J Moran at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
Thomas admitted sexually assaulting two girls at his home on various dates between January 2003 and November 2004. Thomas also pleaded guilty to knowingly producing child pornography and possessing the child pornography.
Judge Moran made an order preventing the identification of the victims. He said that Thomas could be identified but that his address should be no more specific than the fact that he was a resident of West Cork before moving to Midleton.
While Thomas did supply child pornography to others and told the children that another man was paying him for the pictures taken of them, there was no evidence that the pictures of those girls at his home were ever sent to anyone else.
On some occasions the victims, who were aged between nine and 11, were paid sums of €20 to €30 for taking off their clothes and having photographs taken.
Thomas also removed his own clothes and posed with two girls — aged eight to nine — got one of them to masturbate him and then got a seven-year-old girl to take photographs.
More than 100 images were found of girls in sexual poses and sexual acts. Not all of the images were of the three children referred to in the case. The age range of children in the images, with which he was found, range in age from as young as two and up to 16.
Judge Moran said: “So far the effect has been quite serious (on the victims) and we do not know what the future is in this regard.”
Thomas previously apologised to the victims for his actions.
Two of the victims were sisters and their mother said through a victim impact report that the breach of trust had a devastating effect on their lives.
“He brutally stole my children’s innocence. I feel severe guilt. The abuse of children is the most vile of crimes. There is no sentence tough enough to rebalance what we have lost as a result of his pursuit of sexual gratification and money,” she stated.
Tom Creed, defence senior counsel, reminded Judge Moran that the accused wanted to be remanded in custody last April.
Mr Creed said the defendant made admissions to the gardaí after he was arrested. He also attended the Grenada Institute which specialises in the treatment of people with paedophile tendencies.
The defendant pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual assault, two on each of the injured parties, two counts of knowingly producing child pornography at his home and two counts of possessing images of child pornography at his home.
His name was put on the Sex Offenders’ Register yesterday for an indefinite period.
A Garda witness said gardaí had searched Thomas’s home after receiving detailed information from the British police following an operation in Surrey.
That led the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) to an address in Dublin and further investigation led them to four individuals, including Thomas.
Seventy-six images of child porn were found on a memory stick at Thomas’s home — 64 involving children in sex poses and 12 engaged in sex acts. Twenty of the images related to the two girls at the centre of the charges — four of which involved sex acts.
