Limerick man used apps to access graphic material of children
READER WARNING: This article contains references to child sexual abuse.
A MAN living in Limerick has pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
The man cannot be identified due to strict reporting restrictions imposed by a district court order.
A sentencing hearing at Limerick Circuit Court was told that law enforcement became aware of the man’s activities, when he sent an explicit image from the Telegram app to the Snapchat app.
Upon his arrest, he warned gardaí that his phone contained child sexual abuse material.
Forensic analysis of the child pornography videos and images in the man’s possession was detailed in court.
The material in the man’s possession featured an adult male with a six year old, and a child of eight with a sex object. The Limerick Leader has taken the decision not to outline the exact details of the material.
The man was introduced to child pornography on the Telegram app, when a stranger asked him to join a Telegram group. At the time, the man was underage. This later led to the man being added to a trading site. The following was described by the state prosecutor as “insidious”.
The court heard that in an interview with gardaí, the man said he fell down a rabbit hole online, and that it’s common sense that child porn is illegal.
He told gardaí: “sometimes you don’t watch them, sometimes you do, you get no feeling to them”.
When the man was asked by gardaí if he was attracted to children, the man responded that he wouldn’t say no.
Barrister John O’Sullivan, prosecuting for the State, told the court that the man has no previous convictions.
Barrister Johanna O’Connor, representing the accused man, said that it was a serious offence, and there’s no denying that.
The barrister said “at no point has Mr X ever tried to wash his hands of this fact”.
Ms O’Connor said the man “spent an exorbitant amount of time online” and that he was vulnerable during the pandemic.
The barrister detailed that he has since deleted apps. The court heard that the man also used YouTube, Discord, and Facebook.
The barrister said the man is deemed to be at an average risk of reoffending, according to his Probation Report.
Ms O’Connor said: “He came into possession of them when he was a child himself”.
She further stated that the man will take any and every chance the court will give him.
Judge Colin Daly considered the case, and adjourned it for sentencing at a later date in June.
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