'The younger the better': Limerick man who sought images of children online is jailed
David Raleigh
A Limerick man who distributed child sexual abuse images online and encouraged a man to perform a sex act on children was jailed for 18 months, with the final six months suspended.
Terence Fitzpatrick (46), of Donnellan’s Buildings, Rosbrien, Limerick, was also given two concurrent 12-month jail sentences for possessing the illegal material.
At Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing sexual images of children and two counts of distributing the illegal images to others via the Instagram and Whisper apps.
Prosecuting barrister, John O’Sullivan, told the court Fitzpatrick “traded” sexual images of children with others on social media apps.
When another Whisper user messaged Fitzpatrick “what are you into?”, he replied “the younger the better”.
Between them Fitzpatrick and the other Whisper account traded eight images of girls, aged between 10 and 14 with their vaginas exposed.
Images of “topless” 14-year old girls with their breasts exposed that were later found by gardaí on Fitzpatrick’s mobile phone, and on his digital cloud storage, were “not” deemed to be illegal, said Mr O’Sullivan.
One of nine unique images found on Fitzpatrick’s devices, of a ten-year old girl with an object inserted in her vagina, was considered to be the most explicit and graded by gardaí as a “Category A” image.
Fitzpatrick also conversed with man online who said his two children aged (7) and (9), were inappropriately touching him and one other.
O’Sullivan said Fitzpatrick instructed the man to get the two children “naked” and to “cum” on them.
O’Sullivan said the man messaged Fitzpatrick afterwards telling him he had “complied” with his request.
O’Sullivan said Fitzpatrick told gardai he did not believe the other man actually had children and that he believed it was all a “fantasy”.
In February 2022, Fitzpatrick was arrested by gardai attached to the Limerick Divisional Protective Services Unit, Henry Street Garda Station, after they received an alert from the National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the United States, after Fitzpatrick shared a sexual image of a child on Instagram on November 29th, 2021.
During a garda search of his home Fitzpatrick admitted possessing and distributing the illegal material which he had stored on his mobile phone, a USB stick and on digital cloud storage.
Fitzpatrick began seeking images of children in September 2021 when he engaged with a fake Instagram account, which he believed was being run by a 14-year old girl, who he called “sweetheart”, “beautiful princess” and told her “love you loads”.
When the fake account messaged Fitzpatrick seeking naked images of “young teen girls”, he replied: “Can I have naked pics of you haha”.
Fitzpatrick sent the fake profile eight images and one video resulting in the fake account being closed by Instagram.
Fitzpatrick’s barrister, Donal Cronin, instructed by solicitor, Sarah Ryan, said Fitzpatrick had been bored and working an “unstimulating” job when eh sought out the images, and that Fitzpatrick hadn’t come to garda attention since.
Cronin told the court Fitzpatrick’s family relationships were now strained and his wife had left him after she found out about his illegal activities online.
In mitigation, the barrister said Fitzpatrick, who was supported in court by his mother, had pleaded guilty, and cooperated fully with the garda investigation.
Judge Colin Daly said the “harm done” to the children in the images traded by Fitzpatrick was “obvious”.
The judge said the sharing of child abuse material “drives demand for more images, more children to be targeted, more children to be abused, and more children to be exploited”.
The judge said Fitzpatrick engaged in online conversations that “supported and encouraged child sexual abuse”. He added that Fitzpatrick had also “encouraged a man to engage in child sexual abuse of his children”.
Judge Daly said Fitzpatrick’s activities online were “completely reprehensible” and that Fitzpatrick’s “seeking out” of sexual images of children indicated “a level of pre-meditation”.
The judge said he believed “headline” sentences of three years on each count of distribution and two years on each count of possession were appropriate.
The judge said he took into consideration Fitzpatrick’s “guilty pleas”, “genuine remorse’, “willingness” to engage with rehabilitation services, “insight”, as well as a psychological report that stated Fitzpatrick was of below average risk of reoffending.
Judge Daly reduced each of the two distribution sentences to 18 months to run concurrently to one another.
He reduced each of the two possession counts to 12 months to run concurrently to one another and to the distribution sentences.
The judge ordered Fitzpatrick be added to a national sex offenders register; that he abide by a 12-month post release supervision order; and that he engage with a sex-offender treatment programme.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.
