Overview
- The Court of Appeal kept Daniel Ramamoorthy’s two years and four months in prison in place after finding multiple red flags that point to an abnormal sexual interest in children.
- Judges said a large set of character testimonials, including one from a former TD, failed to mention the victim or condemn the offending.
- The court refused a request from The Irish Times to access the references and said its public summary captured their limited weight in mitigation.
- Political leaders urged transparency, with Tánaiste Simon Harris calling on the former lawmaker to identify themselves and Taoiseach Micheál Martin saying public representatives should not give such references in sexual offence cases.
- Ramamoorthy was convicted of asking a 13-year-old to send an explicit image over Snapchat in 2017 and he pleaded guilty to possessing child sexual abuse images found on his laptop after the boy reported him.