Freddy Manuel Diaz has been sentenced to five years in prison on child pornography charges.
The 34-year-old was found guilty at trial last year of accessing a number of horrific images of children being sexually abused.
Appearing via video link from HMP Northward on Thursday, Diaz listened with his head down as Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop handed down the sentence.
“The defendant is a well-educated, married man with minor children, his paternal instincts should have caused him to shun such cruel behaviour towards a child. Instead, he embraced it,” said McDonald-Bishop.
When arriving at the final sentence, the judge explained she had considered Diaz’s likelihood of reoffending, which was considered medium risk, as well as the serious and explicit nature of the images, one of which depicted an infant aged between 18 and 24 months.
“His motivation for offending has not been explored, because he continues to deny any wrongdoing,” said McDonald-Bishop who went on to dismiss a letter by Diaz as an insincere attempt to reduce his jail time.
The judge did note that the sentence ought to have been reduced to reflect Diaz’s previous good character and lack of prior convictions.
The final sentence imposed was four years for the charge of possession of child pornography and five years for accessing child phonography. Both sentences are to run at the same time meaning Diaz will serve a total of five years behind bars.
“[C]hildren were directly sexually harmed, the defendant indirectly contributed to this harm because he provided a market for the viewership of child pornography,” the judge said. “Without this market the child sexual abuse industry would not exist.”
Diaz was arrested in February 2021, after officers were tipped off by foreign intelligence that a Cayman-based IP address was used to access and download child pornography.
When officers attended Diaz’s home, they seized several laptops, cellphones and hard drives. On one laptop, officers found five indecent images of children. According to police two of the images were rated as Category A, while the other three were category C.
McDonald-Bishop who would later consider the type of images as aggravating factors when returning her judgement.
In Cayman, a person who is convicted of possession of child pornography can be sentenced to up to 15 years in prion. Cayman also has a separate penalty for accessing child pornography, which also carries a sentence of up to 15 years upon conviction.
Diaz denied the charges. In December 2021, he was convicted on one charge of possession of child pornography and another of accessing child pornography.
In addition to the prison sentence, McDonald-Bishop also implemented a sexual harm prevention order, the details of which were not read out in open court. The electronic devices used by Diaz to view and store the child pornography are to be destroyed.
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