Man found in possession of more than 4,300 images of child pornography

A man who was caught in possession of over 4,300 images of child pornography was found to have distributed a video of child pornography via email years earlier, a court has heard.

Kevin Maguire (29) sent an email with an attachment depicting an approximately 10-year-old girl being orally raped by an adult man to two separate email addresses. He has no previous convictions.

Maguire of The Hedgerow, Foxrock, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of child pornography at Castlefarm, Shankill, on May 7th, 2015 and distribution of child pornography at the same address on an unknown date between August 2nd, 2011 and October 22nd, 2011.

Det Garda Bernard Dunne told Diarmuid Collins BL, prosecuting, that on foot of information received from Interpol regarding the exchange of images on a Russian website, the IP address of a Hotmail account, associated with a user name on the website, was traced to Shankill.

Det Gda Dunne said that on the date in May 2015, gardaí­ searched the house where the accused lived with his parents. Maguire admitted he had child pornography on his computer and two laptops were seized for analysis.

The first laptop contained 1,070 images and 55 videos of child pornography. This material included boys and girls ranging in age from babies of a few months old to teenagers under the age of 17 being sexually abused.

Gardaí­ also discovered records of search terms directed towards finding child pornography and records of the Russian website being accessed.

The second laptop contained 3,310 images and 65 videos of child pornography. This material included boys and girls of the same age range being sexually abused.

An email was sent from this laptop with a file attached to two email addresses. The file was a seven-minute video depicting an approximately 10-year-old girl being orally raped by an adult man.

Det Gda Dunne agreed with Philip Rahn BL, defending, that there was no suggestion of contact with children or financial transactions in this case. He agreed the distribution charge relates to the sending of the email and Maguire was not a systematic distributor for gain.

Mr Rahn said his client attended counselling and group therapy following the search of his then home in 2015. He said his client has spent the last five years with this case hanging over his head.

Judge Melanie Greally noted that there was no need to pay for child pornography when it was so easy to access and that so many people were quite happy to trade the material.

Judge Greally adjourned the matter for finalisation on January 31st, next.