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Paedo who performed sex acts in front of 17 children online jailed for 18 months

Jacek Pacyno, a Polish national with a military background, pleaded guilty to more than 30 offences

Alan Erwin

Today at 07:33

A man who performed sex acts in front of children via live-stream must now serve an 18-month custodial sentence, the Court of Appeal ruled.

Senior judges held that a three-year probation order originally imposed on Jacek Pacyno for offences involving 17 victims was unduly lenient.

Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan said: “The fact that there is no direct physical contact does not alter the seriousness of such offending and the need for condign punishment.”

Pacyno, 59, was arrested after police searched his former home at Yukon Street in Belfast in January 2019.

An examination of devices seized from the premises revealed nine recordings of him masturbating while girls watched on the livesteams.

Hundreds of indecent videos and images were also located on the computers.

Pacyno, a Polish national with a military background, subsequently pleaded guilty to more than 30 offences committed between October 2014 and January 2019.

The charges included multiple counts of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, making indecent photographs of children and possessing extreme pornography.

In September last year, a judge at Belfast Crown Court ordered him to serve three years on probation and put him on the sex offenders register for five years.

The Public Prosecution Service challenged the sentence on the grounds that it was too lenient.

Counsel for the PPS stressed there would have been no hesitation in jailing Pacyno if he had met children in a local park for up to five years rather than online.

Although the 17 victims who witnessed his actions were never identified, it was contended that they suffered real harm.

The court heard Pacyno, who came to Northern Ireland in 2005 to work in the care sector, received threats and had to flee his home following media coverage of the case.

His barrister argued that the probation order was an appropriate alternative to imprisonment which would see him undergo intensive treatment and benefitting the wider community.

However, in a newly-published judgment, Dame Siobhan declared that crimes of engaging in sexual activity with a child should lead to immediate custody.

“The fact that there are no identified victims does not mean that many children have not been exploited, corrupted, and degraded by this activity and that a deterrent sentence is required,” she said.

Taking into account issues about delay and double jeopardy, the court quashed the probation order and imposed an 18-month sentence.

The new term is to be split equally between periods in custody and on licence.

With Pacyno barred from working with children and vulnerable, the Lady Chief Justice added: “The notification requirements under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 will now apply for 10 years, and not for five years as he was advised earlier.”