IRELAND is being viewed internationally as a country which does not respect or protect children because of the “rare and short” prison sentences handed down to the creators and viewers of child pornography.

A RAPE crisis centre chief has expressed concern over the ease of access to online pornographic images after a public servant downloaded over 15,000 images and files of naked children.

WHEN a court, on behalf of society, imposes a sentence on someone convicted of a crime several objectives are in play. One is to remove a threat from society; another is to punish the individual and a third is to warn others of the consequences of the behaviour that led to the conviction. It is hard to see how these needs were served in the David Ivers case.

A man who was caught with more than 15,000 images of child pornography was given a four-year suspended jail sentence today.

A CORK man has admitted storing images of naked children on his computer.