Corkman who effectively 'gave himself up' avoids jail for having child abuse images

The man has lost his wife and family as a result of his actions nine years ago

The judge finalised sentencing with a two-year suspended sentence on the defendant. File picture: Larry Cummins

An unusual case involving child abuse images saw a man taking no evasive action even though he felt certain that the gardaí would be coming to his home to conduct a search.

The case against 50-year-old Olan Haskett dates back nine years and on Friday he faced sentence for his offence. Judge Helen Boyle acceded to the defence submission from barrister Donal O’Sullivan to impose a fully suspended sentence on Mr Haskett in all the circumstances.

The judge accepted from evidence of Garda James Quirke that in effect: “You self-disclosed. You gave yourself up, as it were. You preserved the evidence of your crimes and handed it over to the gardaí.” 

Mr O’Sullivan, barrister, said Mr Haskett could have thrown his phone, with the downloaded images, into the river in Macroom but he had chosen not to do so. 

He said the accused — who was living in a house at the Hermitage in Macroom with his wife and children at the time of the 2015 offence — had been in therapy in relation to this even before the gardaí seized the material in February 2015.

The 981 images included 262 category 1 images of children and sexual activity, 354 images of child exposure and 365 category 3 images.

Judge Boyle said at Cork Circuit Criminal Court: “In assessing the gravity of the offence, the categories of the images — 1, 2 and 3 — there is no evidence of distribution in this case. They are real children. 

One image is too many. These are children from all over the world who are vulnerable — and by clicking on the images you perpetuate their abuse.

“In terms of mitigating factors, you have spared the time of the State by pleading guilty, this offending occurred quite some time ago — quite a lot of time has passed since the offending — and the Court of Appeal said that is something I should take into consideration. 

"You were addicted to adult porn and moved on to clicking on images of child abuse. You were full and frank in your therapy sessions with your psychologist. You realise the real harm done. You have not come to any adverse attention since.

“The psychologist says you have changed your pattern of behaviour. There is no evidence of risk which is a very important thing.” 

The judge finalised sentencing with a two-year suspended sentence on the defendant who now lives at Old Ford Road, Ballincollig, County Cork. Judge Boyle noted that the defendant’s wife and family had been lost to him as a result of his actions nine years ago.