State argues that the arrest of the child abuse group’s Irish director, following an FBI tip, should be jailed

The state argued that the fully suspended sentence given to the “determined and organized” administrator of a child abuse messaging group captured with hundreds of photos and videos after an FBI tip was too lenient.

Lawyers for the Director of Public Prosecutions told the court on Monday that Anthony Ryan, whose address is Macoyle Upper, Inch, Gorey, Co Wexford, deserved an “immediate custodial sentence”.

Ryan pleaded guilty on September 22, 2020, to one count of possession of child pornography and one count of distribution of child pornography.

He was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, suspended for four years, by Judge James McCourt at Wexford Circuit Court on 20 March 2024.

The court heard Ryan’s home was searched following a tip from the FBI after an undercover agent infiltrated messenger groups and alerted authorities. Numerous images and videos were found on Ryan’s personal mobile phone and other material was also seized from the Kik messaging app.

The combined investigations revealed 575 items, including 326 images of teenage girls, the majority under the age of 12, exposing themselves and 159 videos of teenage boys and girls engaging in sexually explicit activities.

At the Court of Appeal today Patricia McLaughlin SC, for the DPP, argued this was a case requiring “immediate imprisonment”.

He argued that the nature of the relevant material, the methodology for obtaining and distributing these images and videos, and the participant’s level of activism in certain chat threads merited a higher headline sentence.

Counsel referred to the nature and content of the relevant material, including children under the age of eight engaging in oral sex with both adults and children, and the young age of the children, which he said was also a relevant consideration.

He said Ryan effectively used internet tools to help him commit crimes, not only registering on Kik but also registering on Dropbox and other sites to store the images in a way that made them “easily accessible”.

Ms McLaughlin suggested that there was a difference between someone who was “unconsciously drawn into watching this material” and someone who did so in a “determined, organized and premeditated way”.

Counsel accepted that the sentencing judge had referred to relevant aggravating circumstances in his decision, but argued that he had not given sufficient weight to them.

Michael O’Higgins SC, representing Ryan, argued the sentence was not unduly lenient and said it was a “very strong” mitigation in this case.

He said there was “immediate co-operation” with gardaí, Ryan gave his pin number to access the phone and the offense was accepted early.

He said this was an “even” case where there was some “very immoral conduct” in establishing the facts of the case, but on the other hand there was “a very significant mitigation”.

The lawyer described Ryan’s crime as “a disturbance” and “compulsive behavior.”

“There is no justification here, this is rationalization,” he said.

Mr O’Higgins said the defendant had seen the death of both his father and his teenage daughter and it had led him to a “very dark place” but “when there was a knock at the door the turnaround couldn’t have been quicker”. . He said his client immediately contacted the child abuse support service Quarter One.

He said he recognized that Ryan “was in the throes of this ordeal and took every step to stabilize him.”

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said the three-judge court would reserve the right to rule on the case.

Detective Garda Jacinta Gordon told the sentencing hearing that gardaí searched Ryan’s home following a tip from the FBI in Winnebago, Illinois, about Kik Messenger accounts associated with email addresses linked to the defendant.

The court heard that Kik Messenger is a messaging platform with similar functionality to Whatsapp and Viber, allowing group chats for up to 50 people. The platform also facilitates the sharing of images, videos and links among participants.

Multiple electronic devices were seized from Ryan’s home and numerous images and videos were found on his personal cell phone. The defendant was present during the execution of the order and cooperated by providing all devices and PIN codes to gardai.

The mobile phone was examined in December 2021 and material was extracted using Cellebrite software, and other material was also extracted from the contents of the Kik app manually using the screenshot function.

The combined review uncovered 575 items, including 326 images of girls, most of whom were under the age of 12 with exposed genitalia, and 67 images of teenage girls engaging in or being exposed to sexually explicit activity.

Gardaí also found 23 videos of boys and girls, mostly under the age of 12, with their genitals exposed and 159 videos of young boys and girls engaging in sexually explicit activities.

In addition to the material Ryan had on Kik, there was evidence that he distributed images and videos containing child pornography in these chat threads. He shared 42 images in total.

The court heard Ryan actively commented on images shared by others.

When interviewed, he admitted that he was the group administrator of the Kik Messenger group that shared images of child sexual abuse.