The Court of Appeal has said a social media influencer, motivational speaker and former government adviser convicted of the sexual exploitation of a 13-year-old boy had an abnormal sexual interest in children that would likely require expert intervention.
The court rejected an appeal by 40-year-old Daniel Ramamoorthy against the severity of the two years and four months' sentence imposed on him in March last year.
The Appeal Court did not name the former TD who provided a testimonial for Ramamoorthy's sentence hearing. It had previously described the testimonials from the TD and others as "extraordinary" because they had not mentioned the victim or the "vile nature" of the crime.
Ramamoorthy, who had an address at Whitebarn Road in Rathfarnham, had been involved in trade relations between Ireland and India and had at one time been an adviser to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. He was the son of a diplomat and was educated at Yale in the US.
In 2017, he was acting as a mentor and leader at a Christian children’s camp when he met the victim in this case - a 13-year-old boy.
Later when the boy was at home, he and Ramamoorthy got into a late night conversation on Snapchat.
Ramamoorthy suggested playing a game of truth or dare. He asked the boy to send him a photograph of his penis after asking him "how big is your d**k?"
The boy did not send a photograph. Ramamoorthy sent him a photograph of his own pubic area and told him he was addicted to pornography.
The boy told his sister and gardaí began an investigation.
When they seized Ramamoorthy’s laptop, they found three images of child sexual abuse showing young boys aged between 10 and 13 and an unknown adult man.
Ramamoorthy pleaded guilty to possession of the material but denied the charge of sexual exploitation. He denied the Snapchat conversation ever took place.
The victim told the court Ramamoorthy had tried to discredit him, and he had suffered sleepless nights thinking what could have happened if he had engaged further with him.
A jury found Ramamoorthy guilty in February 2025. At his sentencing hearing, Judge Sinead McMullen made reference to testimonials handed in relating to Ramamoorthy’s many charitable projects, saying it was rare for a court to have such excellent affidavits.
Since 2024, anyone giving evidence of a convicted person’s character for specified offences, including the possession of child pornography, must give the evidence in court under oath or must swear an affidavit.
Ramamoorthy appealed the severity of his sentence. At the appeal hearing last week, Judge John Edwards said one of the testimonials handed in on his behalf was from a TD and that it was "quite extraordinary" that he and others failed to mention the victim or the "vile nature" of the crime in their references.
Today, the court refused to grant an application by a solicitor from The Irish Times to release the references. The judge said the reference he had mentioned actually came from a former TD but was the same as the others, in that none of them referred to the victim or the nature of the crime. "None deprecated child sexual exploitation or child pornography as social evils," the judge said.
In his ruling, the judge said the value of evidence of previous good character might be of benefit to a court in deciding whether to give greater priority to rehabilitation and reform in a case of first time offending where the offending was aberrational or out of character.
But he said in this case there was little to support the suggestion that it was out of character. The judge said there were many red flags suggesting Ramamoorthy had an abnormal sexual interest in children and required professional help.
The judge also said there was no evidence of acceptance of wrong doing by Ramamoorthy in relation to the conviction for the sexual exploitation of a child. The judge said there was no credible evidence of remorse or appreciation of the harm that had been done to the victim. Judge Edwards said the sentencing judge did not receive any evidence suggesting any meaningful steps taken by Ramamoorthy to seek the necessary professional help.
The court ruled there was no basis for suspending any part of the sentence and rejected Ramamoorthy’s appeal.
Judge Edwards said the court did not "live in a teapot" and was aware of the debate over his remarks.
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'I'm going to check it's not a member of my party' - Simon Harris
Tánaiste Simon Harris said he did not know who the TD was.
Mr Harris said the law had recently been changed to strengthen protections around character references, which means they must be given on oath or via affidavit.
Speaking earlier today, he said: "This idea that you can anonymously or cowardly hide behind references into a court is not acceptable - that's why we changed the law.
"The member of Dáil Éireann who did this should come forward and let us know who it is."
He added: "I'm going to check that it's not a member of my party [Fine Gael].
"I have no knowledge that it's a Government TD, an Opposition TD, I don't know who it is.
"And I think if somebody has done it, I think they should come forward - but certainly no one in my party has contacted me as party leader."
Mr Harris said he asked Fine Gael general secretary John Carroll to contact every TD in the party to "seek an assurance" and said "all party leaders should do that too".
Asked if he would do similar for Fianna Fáil, Mr Martin said: "I'm not going to go on a particular witch hunt on anybody.
"I mean, that may come up in due course. I don't know who the TD is, and that issue is very unclear."
He added: "I would expect any TD who would have done that to come forward."
On Sunday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he does not believe public representatives should be giving character references, particularly in cases "that involve sexual exploitation or sexual abuse or anything of that nature".
Mr Martin said he had "no idea who the TD is".
Additional reporting by PA
