3-year delay to analyse child porn ‘unacceptable’

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.

Judge Thomas O’Donnell, at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court, took what he described as “an unacceptable prosecutorial delay” into consideration when passing sentence on Aidan McIntyre, aged 36, from Lismeeganon, Aghamore, Ballyhaunis.

“This [delay] must be considered a substantial mitigatory factor,” the Judge said before imposing an 18-month suspended prison sentence on the accused, who had been in custody since Aug 22 and who had pleaded guilty.