This article is from page 6 of the 2014-07-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
A FORMER factory worker who admitted possession of child pornography at his home in Ennis will learn later this year if he is to receive a custodial sentence.
The 49 year-old man pleaded guilty in March to possession of five images and 43 movies of child pornography at an Ennis address on dates unknown between September 28 and September 30, 2009.
Details of the case were heard at Ennis Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday.
Gardaí searched the man’s house after his computer’s IP address was identified as having accessed child porn. The court heard gardaí seized a Dell Inspiron computer; a hand held XDA device and a memory card.
Garda Frank Browne of Ennis Garda Station told Counsel for the State, Stephen Coughlan BL, the man initially told gardaí he was looking for pornography of women dressed up as teenagers.
He said he may have had a problem with looking at pornography during that time in his life.
Sgt Alan Browne of the Garda Computer Crime Investigations Unit, Harcourt Square, Dublin told the court the images depicted young girls involved in sexual activity.
He said it appeared the girls were pre-pubescent but due to nationality and ethnic background, it was hard to place a definite age on them.
Sgt Browne said the images were in the mid to higher end of the scale used by Director of Public Prosecu- tions (DDP) to classify child porn images.
He said the movies lasted between a few seconds and a few minutes. The court heard they were accessed using peer-to-peer sharing programmes like Ares and Limewire.
Asked by Counsel if the movies could be accidentally downloaded, Sgt Browne said he couldn’t determine that.
He said all the movies had been permanently deleted into the unallocated space on the computer.
Defence counsel, Mark Nicholas BL, told the court, that of the 30,900 pornographic images recovered from the computer, only five were considered in breach of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act.
He said that when the images and movies were deleted, his client would never again be able to access them. Counsel said his client had not attempted to hide or encrypt the images and videos.
He said the offending material just popped up when he was “trawling” for adult pornography.
Counsel said it had taken four years for the matter to come to court and his client had indicated an early guilty plea.
He said the man has suffered “reputational loss” and feels “absolute shame”. He said this was a case that did not require an immediate custodial sentence.
Judge Gerald Keyes said he required time to consider the case.
He consented to a defence application that the man not be named for the moment. He adjourned sentencing to October.