Accused of child pornography possession in Laois

A man appeared in court accused of possessing child pornography in Laois. 

The man (36), who cannot be named due to reporting restrictions, is accused of possessing child pornography at an address in Laois on January 10, 2023. 

Detective Garda Shane Hunter said the man’s home was searched by gardaí who had been notified of the alleged offending by a specialist national garda unit. 

He said two devices were seized during the search and the defendant provided passwords for both. 

Det Hunter said there were two videos of pubescent boys aged around 14 engaged in sexual activity and a third video of a boy aged around 16 exposing himself found on an iPhone 13 which had been seized. He said the videos were uploaded to a dropbox folder but gardai suspect this was an automatic upload and not done out of any intention to distribute the material. 

“They were downloaded through a link that was shared on Telegram,” Det Hunter said. 

On hearing an outline of the evidence, Judge Susan Fay said she was refusing jurisdiction in the case. 

She imposed interim reporting restrictions in the case, granted legal aid to Solicitor Brian Duffy and adjourned the matter to  Portlaoise District Court on January 12 for service of the book of evidence.