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Myles Sweeney, formerly of Grouse Hill Park in the Waterside area of the city admitted five charges of possessing extreme images of children and nine charges of making indecent images of children on dates between October 2010 and January 2021
Derry Crown Court
Reporter:
Court Reporter
10 Oct 2024 1:52 PM
Email:
news@derrynow.com
A 57-seven years old child sex offender, who was forced to flee across the border when he was threatened following his first court appearance on the charges earlier this year, has been sentenced at Derry Crown Court.
Judge Neil Rafferty KC said because of the actions of those who had threatened the defendant, his options in terms of imposing a community based sentence or a rehabilitative sentence or a probation order were therefore limited.
The defendant Myles Sweeney, formerly of Grouse Hill Park in the Waterside area of the city, was initially charged with 24 offences relating to the making and possessing of indecent images of children.
In court today a barrister for the Public Prosecution Service told Judge Rafferty that 10 of those charges were to be left on the books, not to be proceeded with without leave of the court. The prosecutor said the remaining images were the lowest Category C images and many of them were duplicates.
The defendant was then sentenced to eight months in jail, suspended for two years, and placed on the Sex Offender's Register for 10 years.
He'd admitted five charges of possessing extreme images of children and nine charges of making indecent images of children on dates between October 2010 and January 2021.
Judge Rafferty said it was "an imperfect sentencing exercise because of the prevailing situation on the ground".
He added: "This defendant now lives in the Republic of Ireland due to threats which were made against him by virtue of the nature of the allegations. The fact that he now lives in the Republic of Ireland means I have requested from our colleagues in the Republic of Ireland a probation services report. He is assessed as being a low risk re-offender for sexual and for non-sexual crimes and he will be monitored by An Garda Siochana.
"If he had remained in Northern Ireland I have absolutely no doubt the probation board in Northern Ireland would have deemed him suitable for a three year sexual offender's rehabilitation course. That would have been a highly desirable outcome but that is not available to him because people took it into their own hands to threaten the defendant causing him to move to the Republic of Ireland.
"The protective measures in this jurisdiction to deal with such offenders are highly effective. Those measures are in place to protect the public but because of the actions of those who have threatened the defendant, those measures are not available to me."
After sentencing Sweeney Judge Rafferty ordered the destruction of all of the defendant's internet enabled devices which contained the images.
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Stephen McCauley, (Letterkenny AC) winner with Danny Mooney (Letterkenny AC), 2nd place and John Joe Doherty (416) 3rd place in the Waterside Half Marathon. (Photo - Tom Heaney, nwpresspics
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