The high volume of investigations into suspected possession of child porn has caused a backlog of up to four years in the Garda office responsible for forensically examining computers.

A judge has said an “unacceptable” three-year delay by the Garda computer crime unit in analysing child porn found on a Co Mayo man’s laptop in 2009 was a mitigating factor in his decision to impose a suspended sentence.

Gardaí are taking more than three years to process some prosecutions for child pornography, it has emerged.

ART forged a powerful statement of public grief and anger yesterday to embrace the third anniversary of a notorious Limerick murder in a message of solidarity with the innocent victims of violence and their families.

BRAZILIANS living in Gort, Co Galway, partied into the night last night, doing the Samba into the early hours, after they made it to knock-out stages of the World Cup.