A YOUNG WICKLOW man who posed as a teenage girl on Facebook to sexually exploit over 60 young children by getting them to send him naked photos of themselves has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Lorcan Tracey (26) of The Commons, Rathnew, Co Wicklow appeared before a sitting of Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court in relation to a total of 190 charges on sexual exploitation and child pornography offences.

Judge Patrick Quinn said Tracey had adopted the online persona of a 12-13 year-old girl to get his victims to send them naked photos of themselves and on one day alone had targeted 20 young people online.

The court heard that there were a total of 64 victims of the accused including one boy who was aged just 8 years.

Judge Quinn said Tracey had engaged in “cruel and intrusive” behaviour of young children whose ages he knew and had exploited their personal vulnerabilities and frailties.

The judge remarked that the offences contained “a strong element of depravity.”

However, he acknowledged that Tracey had never physically met any of his victims and had made no commercial gain from distributing some of the photos he had been sent.

The judge also noted that there was no suggestion that the accused was part of a paedophile ring.

Many of his victims lived in Ireland but others were based in the UK, the US, Australia and Belgium.

The court heard Tracey had sent naked photos of a teenage girl to his victims via Facebook, purporting to be photos of the sender, in order to get them to send similar photos back to him.

In some cases, he asked young boys for photos of themselves engaging in sexual activity with another child.

He faced 142 counts of the sexual exploitation of a child contrary to Section 3 of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998 as well as 37 counts of the possession of child pornography and 11 counts of distributing child pornographic images.

Tracey pleaded guilty to 26 sample charges relating to offences committed in 2015 when he was aged 17-18 years.

At a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Judge Quinn said Tracey had used coercive and threatening language with some of his victims.

The judge noted the accused, while posing as a teenage girl, warned many of his victims that he would take his own life or engage in self-harm unless they sent him naked photos of themselves.

He also observed that Tracey had suggested to some of his victims that they had special needs, while some of his victims were so young that they were unaware of the sexual nature of what they were being asked to do.

Detective Garda Georgina Earley of the Garda National Protective Services Bureau had previously told the court that gardaí were alerted about the offences by the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in October of 2015.

At the same hearing the accused’s father, Kevin Tracey, gave evidence that he only fully understood the gravity of his son’s offending for the first time after what he had heard in court.

Asked if he was surprised, the man replied: “Shocked.”

He added: “I apologise for what he has done. Honestly, I don’t know what was going on in his mind.”

Judge Quinn said IP addresses were identified and traced to Lorcan Tracey who originally denied all knowledge of the Facebook accounts used to commit the offences when he was arrested in January 2017.

The judge noted that the accused had refused to give a PIN number for his computer to gardaí, while he had also tried to blame his brother for operating one of the accounts.

Judge Quinn said Tracey had engaged in multiple incidents of intimidating, inducing and coercing young people to send him naked photographs of themselves for his personal pleasure.

He claimed the accused had engaged in a “wholly unacceptable” level of deception and cruel duress.

Judge Quinn assessed Tracey’s offending at “slightly short of the higher range”.

The court heard that many of the victims did not engage with the criminal investigation as they would have found it too upsetting.

Judge Quinn also observed that Tracey, who left school at the age of 16, had a dysfunctional family history and suffered from a number of health issues including a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The judge gave him credit for pleading guilty to the offences and saving the State a criminal trial that could have lasted up to two months.

He acknowledged that Tracey had apologised to his victims and had expressed deep remorse and recognised the gross effect his actions had on them.

However, the judge also took into consideration that a probation report found him at a high risk of re-offending.

Sentencing Tracey to six years in prison for the offences relating to the sexual exploitation of children, Judge Quinn suspended the final 12 months on condition that he places himself under the supervision of the Probation Service for a period of five years upon release and follows all referrals relating to counselling and treatment.

He sentenced the accused to three years and 18 months for the distribution and possession of child pornography respectively to run concurrently.

Judge Quinn also directed that Tracey’s name be placed on the register of sex offenders.