Dundalk court - Man found in possession of child pornography

A third level student was found in possession of an image of a child engaged in a sex act, after gardai were contacted by Interpol, Dundalk District Court heard last week.

The investigating garda told the in-camera hearing that Interpol had notified An Garda Siochana of a referral from Manchester police about the defendant accessing child pornography.

The image which was found on the now 27 year old defendant’s mobile phone following a search athis home on January 30th last year, fell into Category one and the garda ranked its level of severity as "five out of 10". The Defence solicitor said the notification came from a body that monitors such activity and the garda confirmed the accused made full admissions.

A letter from support group One in Four was handed into the court which heard the defendant had attended 12 counselling sessions over a year and a half. The solicitor said his client – who had no previous convictions, was at a particularly low ebb at the time having failed his final exams in third year.

He was ‘in self destruct mode' and was abusing cannabis significantly but stressed that since then the defendant had taken all the correct steps. The court heard the defendant has since graduated and while he’s now working full time he hopes to study for his Masters.

After hearing the man’s family fully support him and his mother was in court, Judge John Brennan who said it would be disproportionate to place him on the Sex Offenders register applied the Probation Act and warned “You won’t get that chance again” and addressing the solicitor said "It's important your client understands that".

The judge also ordered the destruction of the seized mobile phone.