‘Mitigation’ a factor in child porn sentence

The severity of images in a child pornography case merited a jail sentence, but mitigating factors required it to be suspended, according to the sentencing judge in the case against a middle-aged Corkman yesterday.

Judge Petria McDonnell imposed a nine-month suspended sentence on Conor Murphy, aged 46, of Diamond Hill, Monkstown, Co Cork, who pleaded guilty to a charge of knowingly having in his possession 586 child pornography image files at an unspecified location between Mar 31, 2010, and Jul 9, 2010.

Det Garda Seán Minihane said 566 of the images were stills from one video. The judge noted that some of the images were category one, the most serious category of child pornography.