Man who took 'upskirt' pictures on Luas and found with child abuse video appeals sentence

A MAN WHO was caught by an off-duty garda taking “up-skirt” pictures on the Luas and was later found with hundreds of thousands of similar images along with an “extremely explicit” child abuse video has appealed against his five-and-a-half year prison sentence.

Around 20,000 images of women and girls’ legs, groins and buttocks, including “up-skirt” photos of schoolgirls, were found on scotsman Paul Boyle’s mobile phone when an off-duty garda spotted him acting suspiciously on the Luas in December 2019.

A subsequent Garda search of Boyle’s home at Sandyford View, Blackglen Road, Dublin 18, found hundreds of thousands of similar images.

At the Court of Appeal today, Professor Tom O’Malley SC, for Boyle, said the sentencing judge erred in that he “did not identify a suitable headline sentence, followed by an appropriate reduction in respect of mitigation”.
Prof O’Malley said his client was appealing on the basis that the sentence imposed on the child abuse material count was “wholly disproportionate”, given that the charge related to a single video only.

Boyle’s lawyers also submitted that the harassment sentence was “excessive” and that it “failed to reflect relevant case law”.

The appellant’s lawyers further submitted that the use of consecutive sentences was also “excessive”, that a psychological report was not given appropriate consideration and that the overall sentence was too high, “offending the principles of totality”.

It was also submitted that there had been “no extortion, blackmail or threats” involved in the offending and that the offences were not aimed at causing distress to the victims.

“In fact, there was no contact with the victims and those who learned of it did so only from the investigation,” Boyle’s lawyers submitted.

Prof O’Malley further submitted that the trial judge had acknowledged Boyle’s “genuine remorse” and his client’s plea of guilty but did not explain how the sentence had been structured regarding mitigation from the headline sentence.

Kate Egan BL, for the State, said not all persons in the 278,000 photos were identified but this “does not mean they are irrelevant”.

“The trial court placed a weight on the overall amount of images,” said Ms Egan, who added that Boyle was “taking surreptitious photos of women’s groins, thighs and buttocks in public settings”.

Prof O’Malley said that a psychiatrist’s report said that his client had a disorder regarding voyeurism and described the three year sentence, albeit with two-and-a-half years for possessing the child pornography video, as “disproportionate in the extreme”.

Appeal court judge Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said Boyle was given a reduced sentence despite “watching the grossest sexual offences” concerning the child in the video, which was known to international law enforcement.

Prof O’Malley said the suspended two-and-a-half years were imposed in the interests of rehabilitation but asked what reduction, if any, his client received separately in mitigation.

Ms Egan said a total of 21 victims, including the young girl in the video and two schoolgirls on the Luas, had been identified by gardaí.

“The question is whether an error of law of such significance is identified that the court is bound to interfere,” said Ms Egan.

“None of the penalties imposed are obviously beyond the range available [to the sentencing judge]. Some could have been more or less lenient. The child pornography charge was only six months’ imprisonment. On one view, it was lenient as it was serious and heinous material,” said counsel.

Ms Egan said Boyle committed a “very serious offence and received a significant suspension”, which showed that the “very experienced” trial judge took account of the totality principle in sentencing. Counsel said the punishment was not outside the range of sentences available to the court below.

Mr Justice Birmingham said the court would adjourn the matter in the hope of delivering judgement on Thursday.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that on 16 December, 2019, the off-duty Garda noticed that a passenger kept moving throughout the carriage and was holding a mobile phone below waist level.

At the sentencing hearing, Detective Garda Colm Grogan told Eoin Lawlor, BL, prosecuting, that the Garda could see from the reflection in the Luas window that the man was taking photographs of a woman’s buttock.

Det Gda Grogan followed the man off the Luas, identified himself, and confronted Boyle. The garda then alerted an on-duty colleague who seized Boyle’s phone before he was brought to Dundrum Garda Station.

Boyle (46) was questioned but initially made no admissions to gardaí.

A search warrant was obtained for Boyle’s home and several flash drive devices were found and seized. Around 275,800 images of the groins and buttocks of women, young ladies and girls were found.

The images were taken between June 2018 and January 2020.

The court heard that a “disturbing” video involving a child was also found on a flash drive at Boyle’s home.

The investigating Garda told the court that the 2002 video was “extremely explicit and disturbing” and it was the first time it had come to the attention of gardaí in Ireland.

Other images seized by gardaí contained images of Boyle’s co-workers. The court heard that when contacted, the women were “very distressed, horrified and violated”.

In March 2022, Boyle pleaded guilty to harassment at a location in Dublin city between November and December 2019. He also admitted possession of a child pornography video at his home on 28 January, 2020.

In July 2022, Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Boyle to five years’ imprisonment for the harassment. On the count of possession of child pornography, he imposed a three-year term, to run consecutive to the harassment sentence.

However, Judge Nolan suspended the final two and a half years of the child pornography sentence and backdated it to when Boyle went into custody in March 2021. Judge Nolan ordered that Boyle can never make any form of contact with any of the victims who he took images of and also imposed two years of post-release supervision.

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