June 2021

Garda caught man viewing abuse images in hotel car park

John Healy of Gortroe, Corrandulla, Co Galway has pleaded guilty to the possession of several thousand images and videos of child abuse

Galway Circuit Criminal Court has heard that a garda found a man viewing sexual abuse images of children while sitting in his van in a hotel car park.

Sentencing was adjourned today in the case of the IT specialist, who pleaded guilty in May 2019 to the possession of several thousand images and videos of child abuse.His sentencing has been postponed several times due to delays in preparing expert reports and the availability of witnesses.

Today at Galway Circuit Criminal Court, Sergeant Aidan Quinn gave evidence that he was on regular duty in a housing estate in Claregalway in October 2014 when he noticed a man sitting in a van in a hotel car park using a laptop.Sgt Quinn said he was “totally engrossed in its content” to such an extent that he was “oblivious to his surroundings”.

When he approached the vehicle, Sgt Quinn told the court that he positioned himself outside the driver’s window and observed Healy viewing multiple child abuse images.When Healy noticed the garda’s presence, Sgt Quinn told the court, he tried to close his laptop and remove several leads from it. He told Sgt Quinn that it was a work email. 

A search of the van produced several items, including a laptop that had its hard drive removed, a number of USB keys, one of which contained an operating system for the laptop.Gardaí also found female underwear, condoms and graphic black and white images of children.

They also found a webcam between the headrests in the cockpit of the van, as well as €4,155 in cash and €3,476 in chequesThe Garda Cyber Crime Investigation Unit examined the contents and found that the hard drive contained more than 300,000 images and videos, which were organised in a number of password-encrypted folders.

Analysis by Detective Sergeant Paul Johnston showed that all of the folders and files were created on 7 April 2014.

The court was told that this suggested the hard drive was the backup of the contents of another computer.The content that was downloaded and stored suggested a strong level of organisation by the user, Sgt Quinn told court today.

A folder titled LiveCam was also found, containing images of adolescent females in swimwear at location such as beaches, promenades, fun parks and swimming pools.

Sgt Quinn told Galway Circuit Criminal court today that 3,000 of the 300,000 images were examined and that 85% of those were child abuse images and videos

He described them as being on the “upper level in terms of severity”.The hard drive also contained links that indicated that Healy had access to the TOR browser, which Sgt Quinn explained is more commonly known as the dark web.

There was also evidence that it connected to the GigaTribe file-sharing programme.

When questioned, Healy admitted to being in possession of all the items. He admitted knowing that the hard drive contained images of child abuse and of being in possession of them.

He also admitted having accessed and viewed child abuse images since 2008.

June 2021

‘Every time I went outside, there was a risk of being snatched as I played, and sexually assaulted’

The victim of an evil paedophile who has been jailed for sexually abusing her repeatedly when she was just eight years of age has said she is glad he is behind bars so he can’t molest other girls.

Francis Malone (54), from Kennedy Park, Wexford Town, was sentenced to two years jail at Wexford Circuit Court earlier this month after being convicted of six counts of indecent assault between 1979 and 1980.

Malone was just 12 years old when the attacks took place but the court ruled he knew what he was doing was wrong.

His victim, who described Malone as a “sneaky, manipulative and horrible” predator said that she was so happy when the jury found him guilty and is glad he is now behind bars.

“I was really happy when the jury came back with the guilty verdict given it was a really old case,” he said.

Given Malone’s age at the time of the attacks, questions arose in court about the age of criminal responsibility as under law at the time children under 14 were not criminally responsible for their crimes if they did not know what they were doing was wrong.

However, the court found Malone, who menacingly threatened his victim a number of times, was very aware that what he was doing was wrong. The court also heard he went on to commit other sexual assaults for which he was jailed.

The victim said she wasn’t disappointed that he was only sentenced to two years given the age he was when he carried out the offences.

“The law was a lot more complicated. His age had to be taken into account. It wasn’t about what length of sentence he did because it’s not going to a make a difference to my life. It’s more that he is behind bars for two years and can’t molest other girls.”

His victim also said she was glad Malone was being exposed for what he did to her. “The reason I went forward with it was so people would know.”

Malone denied carrying out the series of attacks and forced his victim to go through the added trauma of a trial.

Judge Cormac Quinn praised the victim for her bravery in coming forward and testifying about the horrific abuse she suffered at the hands of Malone.

The court heard the abuse started when Malone targeted the victim while she was at his house playing with Malone’s brother.

Malone sent his brother to the shops leaving him alone with the victim when he chased her and forced himself upon her, sexually assaulting her.

He targeted her again a second time in the house and tried to rape her before sexually assaulting her.

After that he started targeting her on waste ground as he pounced on her while she was on her way to or from the local shops.

She told how he removed her clothes during the attacks and she remembered how he slobbered red-faced all over her.

Malone did not take the stand during the trial.

The court heard the victim first came forward in 2018 when Malone was already serving a three-year sentence for a number of other sexual assaults.

He was serving his sentence in Arbour Hill when gardaí interviewed him about this case. He denied carrying out the attacks; however, a jury found him guilty on six counts earlier this month.

In her victim impact statement the woman said Malone “stole the innocence of my childhood, turning it from a safe place of sunshine, fairy tales, and red ribbons to a place of darkness, shame, and survival”.

“I had to become hyper-alert and so fearful at the age eight, because every time I stepped outside of my house, there was a risk of getting snatched off the street as I played, to be trapped, degraded, and sexually assaulted….used. Dying inside each time. I felt like I was prey, a small deer and he hunted me down on his bicycle, every time I went to the shop on errands for my mum.”

She spoke of how she had constant nightmares of Malone chasing her on his bike “laughing his evil laugh” as she ran as fast as she could to try to escape.

“Back then, after each time he did those things to me, I was left feeling so disgusting and dirty. I internalise those feelings and it made me feel like I was a disgusting and dirty person on the inside. I remember wishing I could unzip my body, step out of it, discarding it in the bin and getting a new body without any black sticky stain on it.”

She said she used to get angry at herself thinking if only she ran faster he wouldn’t have caught her but it was only after years of therapy that she realised he was always going to catch her.

She said what he did to her made her feel like she had no voice, no power or no choice.

“Every time I begged, pleaded, and screamed………NO ! STOP ! PLEASE LET ME GO…..he ignored me and took what he wanted because he was bigger and stronger than me.”

She explained how she has spent her life in a state of hyper-vigilance and sees potential threats everywhere and is very protective of her own children.

She also revealed that she sleeps with a knife under her bed in case someone comes in to attack her while she’s sleeping and when she’s staying overnight in hotels alone while travelling for work she barricades the door with chairs and her suitcase.

She added that she was overcome with joy when the jury found Malone guilty.

“I was so overwhelmed with happiness the other day when I heard the guilty verdict as it meant that 12 strangers thought that what he did to me, was not okay to do to me. I can eventually hand him back that black sticky tar stain… I hope I can reclaim space inside of me for different types of feelings. Hopefully, I can learn how to stop running.”

Judge Quinn commended the victim for her bravery. He said the court felt Malone displayed a level of maturity and understanding beyond the average 12-year-old of the time and did not go on to live a blameless life.

He sentenced Malone to one year for each of the six offences but ordered that five of the sentences run concurrently while one is to run consecutively, so that he will effectively serve a two-year sentence.

May 2021

Pint-sized pervert who sent sick child abuse videos via Skype is back on the streets

A pint-sized pervert who distributed videos of a young girl being raped is back on the streets after serving 18 months in prison.

Our pictures show twisted child sexual abuse images distributor Martin Stapleton walking free from Arbour Hill Prison last week, before being whisked away from the jail in a car driven by a social worker.

Twisted Stapleton emerged from the prison hiding his face behind a mask, sunglasses and baseball cap 

On exiting the prison gate, the 32-year-old hopped into the passenger seat of the waiting car before being driven into Dublin city.

At his sentencing hearing in October 2019, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard how Stapleton distributed the same child abuse video on three occasions.

The then 30-year-old pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography and possessing child pornography at his address in Glenmore Green, Ballyboden on July 17, 2014 and July 1, 2015 respectively.

Garda Alan Young told John Berry BL, prosecuting, that gardai received information on June 30, 2015 from police in Merseyside in the UK.

The information was to the effect that someone at Stapleton’s address had sent indecent images via Skype to a person who had been arrested in the United Kingdom.

Gardai searched the house the following day and seized a number of electronic devices.

Some 119 images and 18 videos of child pornography were discovered across all of these devices.

Detective Garda Donagh Mannix told Mr Berry that he was able to recover details of conversations and files shared by the accused on Skype.

Detective Mannix said that on three separate occasions Stapleton sent a video of child pornography to three different locations.

He said the video showed a female child being orally raped by an adult man.

During interviews with gardai, Stapleton admitted to possessing and distributing the material, but denied that he had ever touched a child inappropriately.

Sentencing Stapleton to two years in prison, Judge Martin Nolan noted that the devices could not be examined at the time they were seized by reason of lack of resources.

He said that to have this type of charge hanging over someone was onerous. He said had the matter been dealt with expeditiously, the sentence would have been in the region of three years’ imprisonment.

February 2009

Serial sex offender gets life for Nenagh rape

A serial sex offender who raped a woman in the ladies toilet of a Nenagh fast food shop has been jailed for life by Mr Justice Paul Carney.

David Power (27) of Brittas, Thurles today pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to raping the woman in Supermacs in Nenagh on January 28th, 2007.

Power was previously jailed by Mr Justice Carney for terms of five years on October 5th, 2001 and for three years on October 29th, 2002 for aggravated sexual assaults on women in Cork city in June and September 2000.

He was a private in the Irish Army, attached to Collins Barracks in Cork, at the time of his earlier crimes, but had left the defence forces when jailed.

Mr Justice Carney said he was imposing a life sentence but there was nothing to stop Power from applying for parole after eight years.

The victim told Mr Justice Carney the rape had affected her as “a woman, girlfriend, daughter, sister, friend, work colleague and human being” but her family and community had rallied around to support her.

She said she had been a very social person in the past but found her “sense of safety in the world severely threatened and compromised” after the attack and she kept the garda number on speed dial while socialising.

Power read from a letter in which he told the victim: “From the bottom of my heart I am so sorry for what I did to you.” He told Mr Justice Carney that he had tried to get access to treatment in custody.

Ms Elizabeth Power, his mother, told Mr Justice Carney that her son had been sexually abused as a child and as an adult and she was anxious that he receive therapy. “I am asking you as a mother to help my son. I am pleading with you.”

Mr Justice Carney replied that in his view he had already tried to help her son twice in imposing sentences for his previous sexual offending which might now be considered moderate.

He said he could not take into account Power’s troubled upbringing or his addiction to alcohol and drugs. He noted Power had consumed 15 pints, six shots and a “cocktail of ecstasy and speed” on the night of the attack.

Mr Justice Carney called the attack, “planned, predatory and opportunistic” and said Power had a “proven and admitted propensity for rape.”

Mr Justice Carney also told counsel, that since hearing the evidence, he had received a letter from the victim by registered post. He said although it was marked “strictly private and confidential” it was his rule to circulate such correspondence to all parties. However the letter was not read out in open court.

Defence counsel, Ms Isobel Kennedy SC (with Mr Michael Bowman BL), said she would be concerned if the letter had any influence on the court’s sentencing. Mr Justice Carney replied that the sentence was committed to writing long before he read the letter.

Ms Kennedy also complained about a piece which appeared in the Daily Star Newspaper last week following the hearing of evidence. She said the article was highly inflammatory and had caused difficulties to Power’s family.

Power stood with his head bowed as the life sentence was handed down. After a minute, he leaned forward, supporting himself on the bench in front before eventually having to sit down as the prison officers handcuffed him. He was then led away past his family and victims, both groups in tears.

Garda Joan Larkin told Mr John Aylmer SC (with Mr Sean Guerin BL), prosecuting, that the victim was on her way home from a nightclub with her boyfriend when she needed to use a toilet. They stopped at Supermacs and she went upstairs to the ladies toilet while he waited outside.

The woman said as she opened the door of a cubicle she was pushed inside by a man who grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around. She struggled but could not get free and shouted to people coming in and out but could not be heard above the loud music in the toilets.

Power put his two hands around her neck and before he pulled down her clothes and raped her she managed to scrape his face.

Garda Larkin said the victim’s boyfriend had become concerned at the length of time she was gone and had asked a girl to go into the toilets to call out her name. The victim shouted out “yes” when she heard her name and Power stopped and immediately left the toilets.

Garda Larkin said gardaí were contacted and the “extremely traumatised and distressed” woman was treated in hospital. She said the whites of her eyes were red due to the pressure of Power’s hands around her throat and she had bruising on her neck and body which developed over the next few days.

CCTV in the restaurant showed Power going in and out of the ladies toilets in the early hours of the morning.

Power initially denied remembering anything of the incident on his arrest but subsequently made admissions. He told gardaí he had gone into Supermacs with a friend after a night out and had gone into the ladies toilets. He said he went to the gents to get sick and then returned and encountered his victim.

Ms Kennedy said Power had received some counselling while in custody but submitted that he required more intensive supervision. She said he had some insight into his offending and was willing and motivated to deal with his problems.

Ms Kennedy said Power had been sexually abused as a child by his paternal grandfather and more recently by an unknown person as an adult. He had a “high level of remorse” and had the benefit of a supportive family. She said he also accepted his offending was effected by the misuse of alcohol and other substances.

Mr Justice Carney jailed Power for five years on October 5th, 2001 for an aggravated sexual assault on a woman on Stable Lane, off Copley Street, in Cork city on September 29th, 2000.

He imposed a three years sentence on him on October 29th, 2002 for aggravated sexual assault of a 28-year-old prostitute in a car park near Fitton Rd in Cork around midnight on June 2nd, 2000.