BY DAVID FORSYTHE
A MAN who admitted to the possession of child pornography has been given a conditional discharge in the district court.
The man who cannot be named for legal reasons appeared for sentencing before Judge Philip O’Leary at a recent sitting of Macroom District Court.
Court presenter Sergeant Trish O’Sullivan told the court that a warrant was obtained to search the home of the man who lives with his parents in Co Cork.
The search was carried out in May 2022 when four images classified as child pornography were found on a mobile phone and 67 media files classified as child pornography were also discovered. The court heard that the man made a full admission to gardaí and was fully co-operative. The court was also told he had no previous convictions.
Defence solicitor Frank Buttimer said that his client’s ‘actual offending’ had occurred when he was juvenile but was not detected until he was over the age of 18. He said that the offending behaviour began when his client was 15 years old and continued until he was 17.
Mr Buttimer said that his client had realised ‘long before’ the gardaí became involved that his behaviour was unacceptable and he had deleted the images.
Mr Buttimer said that it was his own personal opinion that the isolation of the lockdown period and the man’s age at the time were contributing factors to his behaviour. He said that his client had since gone on to study at university and his prospects for the future were ‘bright’.
Judge O’Leary noted that a probation report described the man as being in the ‘medium risk’ category and recommended probation service supervision. He said that the offending was ‘clearly serious’ but there were mitigating factors, including his young age at the time, the fact that he was co-operative, that he had no previous convictions and had not come to garda attention since.
The man was given an 18-month discharge on his own bond of €200 on condition that he engages fully with the probation service, informs them of any change of address and participates in the Safer Lives programme.
