A Limerick man who admitted filming himself carrying out “vile” sex acts on an infant boy and who then shared the video footage with others on a social media platform has been jailed for six years, with the final two years suspended.
At Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Tom O’Donnell lifted reporting restrictions to allow the identification of the accused, Jamie Marshall (35) a native of Limerick City.
Marshall, who had 133 previous convictions, pleaded guilty to knowingly possessing child pornography; knowingly producing child pornography; knowingly distributing child pornography; defilement of a child; and using communication technology to facilitate the sexual exploitation of a child, on or before December 30th, 2020.
Judge O’Donnell ordered that the specifics of Marshall’s home address, where his parents continue to live, not be reported.
Markets in Vienna or Christmas at The Shelbourne? 10 holiday escapes over the festive season
Stealth sackings: why do employers fire staff for minor misdemeanours?
Michael Harding: I went to the cinema to see Small Things Like These. By the time I emerged I had concluded the film was crap
Look inside: 1950s bungalow transformed into modern five-bed home in Greystones for €1.15m
Marshall’s barrister, Brian McInerney SC told the court that his client’s elderly parents were “concerned” their address would be published.
The mother of the child told the court she wished to waive her right to anonymity. However, the court ordered that the child could not be identified.
Judge O’Donnell said Marshall was entitled to “credit” on his sentence for pleading guilty to all of the charges at the earliest opportunity, for fully co-operating with the Garda investigation, and for having being in custody awaiting sentence since May 2nd, 2023. He had not taken up bail.
However, the judge said he had to impose an immediate custodial sentence, and he described Marshall’s behaviour as “appalling, vile, egregious, and despicable”.
“It was depravity of the highest order with an infant child,” the judge added.
Marshall was facing a maximum life sentence for the defilement charge, a maximum sentence of five years for the possession charge, and up to 14 years on each of the other three charges including producing child pornography, distributing child pornography and using communication technology to facilitate the sexual exploitation of a child.
After sentence was imposed, the boy’s mother approached Marshall, telling him: “You are a dirty, ugly, smelly, horrible scumbag.”
Marshall made no reply.
He signed a bond agreeing to keep the peace and not reoffend for a period of two years after his release.
Although he pleaded guilty to all of the charges, Marshall had denied in interviews with gardaí that he had a sexual predilection for children. He told gardaí the abuse occurred because he was taking cocaine and when he took this drug he became “a creep”.
However, Mr McInerney told the court that Marshall no longer blamed cocaine. “He must accept what he did, no one is to blame but himself and he is deeply ashamed of his behaviour,” he said.
Marshall had filmed himself abusing the boy and uploaded the material to the Kik social media platform under the pseudonym “Honda22Civic”.
When the material was uploaded onto Kik, it quickly alerted the US-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, which tipped off the Garda.
Gardaí tracked down Marshall and identified the infant in January 2021.
Marshall had uploaded and shared 15 videos and two images of sex acts involving children, including the boy, as well as images and videos of a number of underage girls that were shared with him by a third party whom Marshall did not identify.
Marshall was identified by gardaí in the videos with the boy because of distinctive and unique tattoos on his forearms. He had also used his email address to set up the Honda22Civic account.
Reading a victim impact statement, the victim’s mother told the court: “I never thought that something like this would come to my family, I never thought my son would be violated in such a way, it was such a shock to me, my family and friends.”
The woman said the abuse of her son had destroyed her mental health, and she had “self-harmed” and had attempted suicide, “all because of what happened my son”.
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Find The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date