Nurse found with almost 700 child pornography images jailed for three years

A former psychiatric nurse who was found with 690 child pornography images and one video has been given a three-year prison sentence at Nenagh Circuit Court. 

Philip Whelan (52) of 3 Tullaskeagh Road, Roscrea, county Tipperary, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, contrary to Section 6(1) of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act, 1998.

In passing her sentence, Judge Catherine Staines said child pornography is often seen as a victimless crime.

However, the images are created because there are people who would view them and the children in the photos, suffer in their creation.

“An adult penis inserted into a child must have inflicted extreme pain and damage on the child,” said Judge Staines. 

EXTRACTION

Garda Detective Anthony Kirby of the Garda Protective Services Unit told the court that in February 2020, they carried out a search of the defendant’s home where they seized a Samsung Galaxy phone. 

Gardaí extracted 690 images and one video which depicted children of various ages but as young as four engaged in sexual acts or in sexually suggestive positions. 

Of those 255 were category one images, as was the video, which Garda Kirby confirmed depicted intercourse with a child. 

The remaining 435 were category two, which depict children with their genitals exposed.

The guard described just ten of the images for the court and said one had been photoshopped.  The defendant was charged on February 20, 2022, and on interview “made certain admissions”.

COOPERATIVE

Acting for the defendant, William O’Brien BL, said that his client had gone through a difficult divorce ten years ago and had used the images to cope. 

He said his client started with lawful pornography and progressed to “darker” material. 

Mr O’Brien said his client was “attracted to the riskiness of the material,” as opposed to its “substance”.

Mr O’Brien confirmed with the guard that the images found on the phone were more of a “trace” and had not been stored in a way that could be accessed by any user.

His probation officer was satisfied that he was remorseful and that it is “not a victimless crime and is willing to engage with treatment,” the court heard.

The report also said he is at low risk of reoffending. 

Mr O’Brien said that when charges were brought against him, Mr Whelan resigned from his job as a psychiatric nurse and is now estranged from his adult children.

“He gave up his job because he didn’t want to work with vulnerable people when this came to light,” said Mr O’Brien.

The court heard that Mr Whelan moved back in with his parents, and after his mother died last year, he became the primary carer of his father, who has dementia.

Mr O’Brien asked the court to take that into account as well as his client’s work history and the fact that he has been a “useful member of society”.

JUDGEMENT

In passing her judgement, Judge Staines noted the Garda evidence, the number of images and their categories.

She said aggravating factors include the age of the children, with some as young as four-years-old, and the damage inflicted in the creation of the images.  Therefore, the judge set a headline sentence of four years. In mitigation, the judge noted that the defendant had pleaded guilty and had no previous convictions.

She also noted his poor mental health, his father’s deteriorating health, that he was at a low risk of reoffending and that he had “effectively lost his job”.

Judge Staines said the point of a custodial sentence is prevention, but if people don’t download the images, they would not be created.  Therefore, sentences passed must deter the crime. 

She handed the defendant a three-year sentence with the final six months suspended for two years under the supervision of the probation service.

The defendant is also to be registered on the sex offenders register.