Judge clears public from Tralee court due to 'gross' nature of details in child pornography case
A judge excluded the public from a courtroom at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee today because the details in a child pornography case were so "gross".
The case stemmed from a photosharing, document and chat site based in Russia and the Kerry-based computers were traced because of a US Homeland security department operation investigating a man in Arizona who was creating images and placing them on a Russian website in 2012.
There was then a link with the UK and one name in Ireland.
The pornography included “stories”, or documents involving multiple pages of descriptions of the rape and molestation of children, mostly little girls. The stories were created by the accused and by others and this type of pornography was unusual, the court was told.
The man who is in his 50s has pleaded guilty to five counts under the Child Trafficking and Pornography Acts, including video storing of child pornography, showing children engaged with adults, production of documents of child pornography and gross remarks in online chat rooms. The investigation dates to the seizure of the computers in late 2013.
Adult males were described raping and sexually molesting children of various ages, an examination of the seized material which included a laptop an i-Pad, floppy discs and modems revealed.
And in some of the man’s online comments, found under his pseudonym, there were descriptions of sexual contact with a female child.
The comments were so gross the prosecutor cut short reading them out.
There were pages of “stories” which were largely writings of the rapes of eight, nine, and 10-year-old girls.
“The users discuss sexual molestation, sexual assault and worse of small children, particularly girls,” investigating detective garda Ian Kelly, told John O’Sullivan, prosecuting barrister.
Mr O’Sullivan had applied for the exclusion of the public, saying there were “matters of a gross nature” to be outlined. Judge O’Donnell granted the application and the courtroom was cleared, apart from the press.
Images of pre-teen girls with genitals exposed and “stories”, or page after page of written descriptions, of adult men raping and engaging in sexual activity with children as young as four were found.
There was “highly sexualised chat” with multiple users.
Online searches of child pornography were found on the man's computers seized by gardaí in 2013 when they called to his home.
Det. Kelly, answering Judge Thomas E O’Donnell, explained stories were documents created on computers and passed around. They did not involve photographs.
While commentary did happen on pornography sites, stories were unusual, he said.
The court was also told that he had received most of the material and had created a few of the documents himself. There were remarks of a gross nature in those documents and in the exchanges with the others.
Analysis of all the material, including the images and the stories, took until 2017 because of the “sheer volume” of work the Garda Cyber Crime Unit in Dublin had to deal with, which included bank fraud also.
Katie O’Connell, barrister for the man, said her client had become addicted to child pornography. He was relieved when gardaí arrived at his home and co-operated fully.
He had suffered from depression and mental health problems. He had no previous convictions, was a vulnerable person and his address should not be published, the barrister stated, handing psychiatrists reports into court.
He had a low risk of re-offending.
Judge O’Donnell adjourned the matter to December, and ordered his name and address not be published.
