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Garda to be sentenced for possession of child abuse imagery

A Garda will be sentenced later this month after being caught with photos and videos of children,...
Newstalk
Newstalk

20.15 7 Nov 2018


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Garda to be sentenced for poss...

Garda to be sentenced for possession of child abuse imagery

Newstalk
Newstalk

20.15 7 Nov 2018


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A Garda will be sentenced later this month after being caught with photos and videos of children, some younger than ten, being sexually abused.

Joseph O’Connor, who was based in Dublin, denied five counts of possessing such material but was convicted of all but one.

It took the jury just over two hours to find Joseph O’Connor guilty of four of the five offences he faced.

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He was cleared of an offence relating to copies of two images.

During his short trial, the court heard 92 photo files showing children being subjected to sexual acts were found on his laptop.

Over a hundred pictures of child nudity were also discovered as well as 85 movie files, which were described in court as child pornography.

The jury was told some of the children were under the age of ten.

O’Connor denied seeing the material and tried to blame another man who had called to his house for sex just days before the computer was seized.

His barrister told the jurors his laptop was not password protected and would have been easily accessed.

The maximum penalty available to the sentencing judge for each of the four charges he was convicted of is five years in prison.

O’Connor, who was suspended pending the outcome of his case, is due back in court later this month for his sentence hearing.


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