Gardai received tip off from foreign police service
A Limerick father-of-four, jailed for possessing child pornography, was caught by gardaí who received a tip-off from their colleagues at the foreign police service, Interpol. Simeon Betts, (45), was arrested when gardaí searched his home at Hollymount, Church Road, Raheen, and discovered three laptops containing 50 videos and nine images of children been raped by men.
Detective Garda Christine Bergin, Roxboro Road station, told Limerick Circuit Court: “The children were being abused in a horrendous fashion.
“It was horrendous exploitation,” she added.
Betts admitted accessing the videos and images after searching fro child pornography on the Internet search engine, Google.
Garda Bergin said: “The content of the movies was of the upmost scale. All the children involved were all females and were physically raped by adult males”.
The child rape victim’s were aged between four and 10, the court heard.
Betts, who is currently unemployed, had previously worked for the Early Learning Centre in Limerick, where he sold educational tools.
Gardaí seized three laptops from Betts’ house when officers searched the home on March 4, 2010.
The investigation included officers from a number of garda and police agencies including: the Computer Crime Investigation Unit (CCIU); Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation (GBFI); The National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI); the Garda Sexual Assault Investigation Unit, Interpol, and, the UK-based Child Protection & Online Exploitation Centre.
Computer hard-drives, mp3 players, modems, cameras, camcorders, and memory sticks, were also seized.
State Prosecutor, John O’Sullivan SC, said a garda computer expert had examined the laptops and discovered Mr Betts had used the Google Internet search engine to “actively seek out child pornography”.
He said, Betts used search terms including: “child model”, “child model fishnets”, “child model erotic”, “lolita”, “PTHC (Pre-teen hardcore)”, “sexy child models”, “child rape”, “child fantasies”, “movie innocence”.
Garda Bergin told the court that, Betts had also specifically downloaded an Internet file sharing programme called “Limewire”, which allows users to swap files without having to visit specific websites.
Betts initially “adamantly denied” having any knowledge of the material found, but later admitted everything.
“He tried to suppress it. He told gardaí he was seeking help and hoped to get help,” Mark Nicholas BL, defending, told the court.
Mr Betts would view the material, masturbate to it, and then delete it after “feeling disgust and self-loathing”,”Mr Nicholas added.
Sentencing Betts to four years in jail with half the term suspended – provided he be of good behaviour for a period of four years – Judge Carroll Moran said a psychological report on the defendant showed Betts had “an insight into his condition.
“The report states that Betts is able to understand that his interest in young girls cannot disappear simply because he has been caught. The report says he is suffering from a condition that cannot be cured by a person only stating they will desist.”
Judge Moran said Betts would have faced the maximum sentence of five years had he contested the case.
He said the sentence imposed was was appropriate, given Betts early guilty plea, his previous good character, and that “his reputation is in tatters”.
Betts – who has restricted access to his own children - was put on a sex offenders register for a period of 10 years.
