Man avoids jail for 15,000 child porn images

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.

Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop’s warning came after David Ivers, from Midleton, Co Cork, received a four-year suspended sentence for possession of child pornography in September 2007.

Ms O’Malley-Dunlop, who heads the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, said it was a very serious offence as the images were “real children”.

“Pornography is a really extreme and dangerous thing and we do know from the levels of violence that accompany rapes that some are connected to the easy access of pornography,” she said.

At Cork Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Patrick J Moran said a sample of the extreme images of child pornography left a feeling “approaching horror”.

At the time of the offence, Ivers, 54, from Rathcoursey, was chief technician in the architects’ department of Cork City Council.

Detective Sergeant Joe O’Connor said Ivers resorted to downloading the material out of boredom.

His phone number surfaced during an investigation of child pornography in Germany and was passed to gardaí.

Detective Garda Martin Hogan, involved in the forensic examination of computers in 200 cases of this nature, said the content of the images and video files on Ivers’ computer was among the worst he had seen.

“Some of the children were less than one-year of age. Other images showed children aged between one and six being subjected to horrendous physical abuse and subjected to oral sex.”

Defence barrister Donal O’Sullivan said Ivers had since gone to the Grenada Institute in Dublin for counselling and treatment.

- Dublin Rape Crisis Centre operates a 24 Hour Telephone Helpline, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Call 1 800 778 888