Former primary school teacher found with child porn at Galway home is jailed

A Scottish primary school teacher who emigrated to Ireland over 20 years ago has been jailed after he was found in possession of a large volume of child pornographic material.

Neil McKay (75) admitted possession of a total of 13,557 images and 1,685 videos of child pornography, 91 animations of child pornography and four documents relating to child pornography at his then home on Monastery Road, Roundstone, Galway on February 16, 2012.

He also pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to knowingly distributing child pornography via Yahoo messaging service on dates between November 26, 2011 and December 2, 2011.

Garda Johanna Doyle told Diarmuid Collins BL, prosecuting, that the documents related to google earth printouts which highlighted certain locations in Scotland and included boys' names, ages and what sexual activity took place at the location.

Another document entitled “David's story” detailed a named boy who was described as being 11 years old and again outlined sexual activity that took place with this child. There was an image of a boy looking over his shoulder at the top of the document.

The distribution offence involved McKay having a conversation in a messaging service with another user in which there was a clear discussion about child pornography.

It ends with McKay telling the other person he will put up the folder so “you can help yourself”. The folder was later found, on analysis, to contain 99 movies of boys engaged in sexual activity.

Gda Doyle said McKay left Ireland before gardaí had an opportunity to charge him but was later convicted in Scotland of taking indecent photos of children. He was jailed for 30 months but then went on the run.

McKay also has a conviction for failing to abide by the conditions of the sex offenders registrar in that he didn't disclose his address or bank details to the Scottish authorities when he was released having served the 30 month sentence. He received a 14 month jail term for this offence.

Gda Doyle said that she went to Scotland in July 2017 after she learned that McKay was in prison and on the understanding that he had agreed to speak to her. He didn't answer any of the questions put to him in interview.

Gda Doyle secured a European Arrest Warrant the following May and McKay was returned to Ireland in July last year. He has been on remand in custody since.

Gda Doyle agreed with Hugh Hartnett SC, defending, that McKay was originally from Ayr in Scotland and came to Roundstone in 1998 having retired as a primary school teacher.

She agreed that when his home in Galway was first searched he co-operated with the gardaí and accepted that the various devices seized belonged to him.

Mr Hartnett asked Judge Martin Nolan to take into account his client's age and said that McKay has now experienced prison for the first time following his conviction in Scotland

Counsel asked the court to accept there was no commercial or widespread aspect to the distribution charge and added that McKay intends to return to Ayr once released from prison here.

Judge Nolan said he must take into account the facts of the crime, McKay's plea of guilty, his co-operation and his age but added that most people who come before the court on similar offences are not involved in distribution nor do they have previous convictions.

He said it was a considerable quantity of child pornographic material and the fact that he distributed videos was an aggravating factor before he jailed McKay for three and half years. He backdated the sentence to May last year when McKay first went into custody.