The Court of Criminal Appeal has halved the three year jail sentence imposed on a computer programmer who downloaded almost 16,000 child pornography images.
Some of the images were of children as young as four.
The three judge court reduced the sentence on grounds the sentencing judge had not fully taken into account a detailed medical report which indicated a brain injury sustained by Gary Smith (45) in a road traffic accident had contributed to his deviant behaviour.
Smith, of Ashbrook, Pearse Road, Sligo, was jailed last March at Sligo Circuit Criminal Court for three years after he pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography at his home on January 11th, 2007.
Judge Anthony Kennedy also ordered that Smith be placed on the sex offenders' register for five years and receive two years post-release supervision.
Smith appealed against the severity of that sentence to the CCA and the DPP opposed the appeal.
The three judge CCA, with Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns presiding and sitting with Mr Justice Declan Budd and Mr Justice George Birmingham, said it would reduce the sentence to 18 months in prison and suspend the final 18 months. The remainder of the original sentence was left undisturbed.
While Judge Kennedy had correctly imposed a custodial sentence for this "very serious offence" involving a large amount of material that included "graphic images", the CCA believed the three year term was excessive, Mr Justice Kearns said.
He said Smith had been interested in adult pornography for a number of years, before graduating on to child pornography only 18 months before his arrest.
Noting that five years in jail was the maximum sentence for this offence, the judge said a three year prison term would not have been imposed if a medical report stating that Smith's addictive behaviour could be linked to brain damage he suffered in an accident been fully taken into account.
Smith, who is originally from the UK and had been living in Sligo since 1995 and had no previous convictions.
He came to the attention of the Garda as a result of a German investigation known as Operation Max into the dissemination of child pornography.
Some of the material at the centre of this investigation included a video portraying the rape and sexual assault of a four-year-old girl.
Smith initially denied the charges when a Garda investigation led to his place of work in Sligo. But when gardaí arrived at his home, he handed them nine hard drives and 20 CDs and DVDs containing child pornography.