Doctor Avoids Prison Over 3,000
Child Sex Abuse Images
No-one at The Irish News has taken credit for this article which is unfortunate, because I have no-one in particular to criticize for this poorly written piece. To begin with the article was titled 'Former Doctor..." when, in fact, he is still a doctor, just suspended from practicing. There's another more serious problem which you will find below.
AN ANAESTHETIST has avoided going to jail after his nine-month sentence for making indecent images of children was suspended.
The judge said Piotr Dziurdzik (47) did not require an immediate custodial sentence because he was "not dangerous".
The former doctor with the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine, Co Derry, was found with nearly 3,000 images of child sex abuse.
On Wednesday Judge Sandra Crawford said she did not believe the offending required an "immediate custodial sentence" and told Dziurdzik: "This finely balanced decision is based on your genuine remorse and the significant steps that have been taken to address your offending."
Dziurdzik has already been suspended by the General Medical Council and expects to be 'struck off'. He hopes to return to his native Poland but is not expected to resume his career in medicine.
He pleaded guilty to 33 offences including 27 of making indecent photographs of children, committed between 2012 and last year.
Among the indecent images were more than 200 in the most serious categories.
Here is the other problem; he was, apparently, sentenced for making child pornography. Yet, the judge gave him a suspended sentence and believed that he is no threat to children. Making child pornography requires the committing of child sex abuse unless it is done on Photoshop or some similar application.
More than 200 images were in the most serious categories, which, again, one would think would require some very serious child sex abuse. Yet, he was never charged with child sex abuse, from what I can determine! Why? The writer of the sorry article, which, I'm sure now did not originate with The Irish Times, needs to explain that, but he doesn't even ask why. He doesn't ask if Dziurdzik actually assaulted or caused to be assaulted any children in the 'making of child porn'. He doesn't ask who the children are. He doesn't speak up for the children! Hardly anybody does!
Dunluce Castle, Coleraine, Northern Ireland
More spiritual than psychological?
Prosecutor Michael Chambers had told the court that when confronted by police Dziurdzik readily admitted: "Yes, true", and said: "It happened on occasion I was watching adult sites, there was links to sites we're talking about. It's not my area of interest."
Mr Chambers said when later interviewed by police Dziurdzik described his offending as "a paradox...
knowing something is forbidden" and likened it to "Adam and Eve... the forbidden apple".
This is exactly what I have been preaching for at least a year now, that pedophilia is more about the destruction of innocence or the violation of the sacred, than about sex. It may be more spiritual than psychological.
The vast majority of the images were of girls, although some showed small boys. The age range of the children was substantially between eight and 12, although some were as young as five or six.
Dziurdzik, who claimed he was often drunk when viewing images, was also said to be "shocked by the age range" of the children being abused and "taken aback" by the number of images he had amassed.
Francis Rafferty, defending, said Dziurdzik's behaviour was both "disgraceful and appalling" but not once had he tried to minimise his role.
The court was told that he had expressed "huge regret" that the girls in the images had to suffer for his offending to take place.
Given all of that, he added, it would be "rare for the courts to witness a more precipitous fall from grace".
It was also clear from reports, said the lawyer, that at no time had Dziurdzik "come across as 'Poor me, look at what I've lost'."
Since he was arrested Dziurdzik had lost his home and had moved into rented accommodation where he had come under threat from paramilitaries, the court was told.
He had been living with his partner and her stepdaughter who was taken into foster care. They have since gone back to Poland where his partner is "considering their future".
"He does not feel sorry for himself or make no attempt to minimise his behaviour, the gravity of the offences, and the requirement of others to suffer so this offending can take place," the lawyer said.
Mr Rafferty also said that for the past year the anaesthetist has been seeking professional help from specialists in the field of sexual offending.
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