Victim, 10, tells of shame, fear and loneliness following online exploitation by Matthew Horan
A victim, who was ten at the time of her abuse, has spoken of the shame, fear and loneliness prompted by the exploitation she suffered at the hands of Matthew Horan.
Horan, 26, coerced young girls to send him sexually graphic pictures and videos of themselves and was jailed to day for seven and a half years.
The court had heard how the Dublin man used Skype, Snapchat, Instagram and Kik - an anonymous instant messaging application - to send and receive child porn images from six identified child users in Ireland and nine unknown users around the world.
One of those victims told the court today that she thought chatting online was safe and was “like making a new friend”.
“It wasn't. It made me feel ashamed, scared and alone,” she said.
The young girl went on to say she felt sad and angry about the exploitation but she wanted to prevent it happening to anybody else.
“I felt scared because I told him where I had lived. I was afraid he was going to come and get me,” she said, in her victim impact statement in court today.
Lawyers for Horan also told the court that Horan's father's home in Clondalkin was attacked on Monday night, with the front door and windows smashed.
Earlier the court also heard how a forensic examination of Horan’s computer uncovered recorded Skype calls between him and two nine year-old-girls, both individually and together. The recordings included footage of these girls engaging in graphic sexual acts.
Horan also took part in sexually explicit text conversations with the girls, during which there would be an exchange of photos.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Horan would use Kik to share child porn images and videos with unidentified users from around the world, most of whom claimed to be young teenagers.
The court also heard he threatened to share an 11-year-old girl’s nude images to her social media if she didn’t send him more graphic photos.
In the text exchange between them, this little girl repeatedly told Horan that she would kill herself. He then continued to coerce her to send more images, the court heard.
Horan, of St John’s Crescent, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty to a count each of sexually exploiting two girls within the State on dates between April 1 and November 23, 2014.
He pleaded guilty to two more counts of sexually exploiting a child and one count of distributing child porn on dates in 2015. He further pleaded guilty to possessing child porn at his address on July 11, 2015.
He pleaded guilty to three further counts of sexually exploiting female children through Snapchat and Instagram in the State on dates between May 21, 2015 and July 7, 2016.
He also pleaded guilty to possessing child porn on a Sony mobile phone at his home on July 7, 2016. He has no previous convictions.
Judge Martin Nolan suspended the last two years of the nine-and-a-half year sentence. He said that Horan had a very unhealthy, insidious and debased sexual interest in children.
He said the crimes were all committed for Horan's indulgence and pleasure and Horan had exploited children in a most horrible way. He said Horan's actions would have long-term effects on the victims.
“He knew what he was doing was wrong. He understood the damage and yet he didn't stop what he was doing,” he said.
Judge Nolan backdated the sentence to June last year, when Horan went into custody. He ordered a report from the Probation Service into what interventions and services the prison service could provide to reform Horan.
“If there are such interventions, he has to partake of those meaningfully. It is important for society and him that he is given certain interventions that will change him,” he said.
Two other victim impact statements, written by the parents of two of the nine-year-old victims, were read out in court on Monday.
On Monday the father of one of the then nine-year-old girls described how she was targeted by an online predator who she thought was a child her own age.
He said she had bought her Samsung phone with her Communion money to watch cartoons, dancing and singing online. He said it came as an “absolute shock” when gardaí contacted him and he could never have dreamt of the purpose for the subsequent meeting with officers.
He said he was shown an image of his daughter and felt like his home “had been invaded and a burglary had taken place”. The man said he also felt guilty because he had failed to protect his child.
He said he was upset and uncomfortable because once something was out there on the internet, it could never be erased. “This makes us sick to the pits of our stomachs,” the father said in the victim impact statement.
He added that the events would only become clearer for his daughter when she gets older.
The other little girl's mother submitted a victim impact report on her behalf in which she described how her child had gotten the phone for a similar purpose, to watch cartoons and singing online.
The woman said when she found out her daughter had been targeted by an online predator pretending to be a child, “my body started to shake, my blood started to boil”.
The mother said she felt so bad that she failed to protect her child and that she would never get over what happened.
Outside the court, Detective Superintendent Declan Daly said this case was a "timely reminder of the dangers that can occur on the Internet and the need for parents to be vigilant of their children's Internet use”.
He said it was “exceptionally dangerous” for children to share images online, and that children should never agree to meet any person on the internet.
He said if images were shared already, gardaí recommended that children should not share any more images, stop all communication and tell a parent or a appropriate adult.
“They should preserve the evidence and not delete anything and they should report the matter to gardaí,” he said.
The case of Matthew Horan was deeply disturbing. Only a fraction of what he said to his 15 victims and made them share online was fit for broadcast. There are more monsters like him out there so parents AND children need to be extra vigilant. Detective Declan Daly has this advice pic.twitter.com/WIALHyuQrH
— Frank Greaney (@FrankGreaney) January 26, 2018
A man, who sexually exploited girls through social media has been jailed for nine and a half years with the final two years suspended.
The court had heard how Matthew Horan, from St. Johns Crescent in Clondalkin, Dublin 22, asked girls as young as nine to send him sexually explicit images via Instagram, Snapchat, musical.ly and Kik.
Horan even threatened one girl that he would send naked pictures of her to her friends if she did not send him more.
The 26-year-old from Clondalkin also admitted possessing child pornography and distributing the material.
Speaking outside the court after the conclusion of the sentencing hearing Detective Garda Declan Daly said that the case served as a timely reminder of the potential dangers that can occur on the internet."It also serves as a reminder for us all of the need for parents in particular to be vigilant of the internet use regarding their children.
"And it serves as a reminder for children themselves to be aware of the dangers that are on the internet."
"I would like to take this opportunity to renew An Garda Síochána's key message for children in that is is exceptionally dangerous to share images online.
"It is very, very dangerous and children should never arrange or agree to meet any person on the internet."
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