Cork man caught with child abuse images avoids jail sentence

Kyle Lucey pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the images and distribution of two of them.

A young Cork man caught with over 500 child abuse images and who distributed two of them expressed remorse and said he now accepted that it is not a victimless crime.

Judge James McCourt noted that the accused, Kyle Lucey, aged around 20, of Upper Belmont Avenue, Rochestown, engaged with a psychologist from the outset — from the time that gardaí called to his door — in October 2021 when they discovered and seized the images and one video. Defence barrister Emmet Boyle said that the accused was not a man who was only taking all of the steps to rehabilitate just before his sentencing date.

Detective Garda Mary-Jane Somers said that on the occasion two years ago gardaí went to the defendant’s home with a warrant and made the discovery of 553 images — half of which were in the most serious category showing children in sexual acts and the remainder were category two images showing children in some degree of naked exposure. The single video was category one.

Lucey pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the images and distribution of two of them.

Judge McCourt said an aggravating factor was the amount of images. He added: “That number of pictures on a phone can be accumulated very fast, as anyone in a family WhatsApp group can attest.

“In mitigation, you signed pleas of guilty. It saves considerable time, effort, and resources. Your own history as recited in the probation report talks of difficulties when you were younger.

“Up to that time (of detection) you appeared to be blind to the harm visited on the helpless children aged between 3 and 12 who were subjected to rape and abuse.

“You have shown significant insight, albeit after the fact. You have also displayed remorse for your wrongdoing and engaged fully with your psychologist and with a probation officer who has seen you on a number of occasions.

“You are assessed as being at medium risk of re-conviction. You are young enough to correct yourself and avoid criminality in the future. In your own words, you say, ‘ I am guilty and no number of apologies can make up for what I have done but I offer them anyway’.

“I assess the sentence at two years but — given the efforts you have made yourself without having to have your arm twisted to engage with psychologists and the like — I am going to suspend it in its entirety.” 

Turning directly to the accused, the judge said: “I have given you a chance. Some people don’t get a chance. You won’t get another one.”