Chef jailed for possessing child-rape pornography

A German national has been sentenced to three years in prison with two years suspended at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for possession of pornography showing "the systematic rape of children".

Mario Steffen (aged 29), who worked in a hotel in Cavan town and then resided in Duleek, Co Meath, downloaded thousands of offensive images and movies from an internet file-sharing site over a six-month period to satisfy his interest in viewing incestuous material.

Steffen, a trained chef who came to Ireland to work in the hospitality industry, pleaded guilty to having child pornography on June 25, 2007 at his home at Templeroan Grove, Knocklyon.

Judge Frank O'Donnell adjourned sentencing last April and remanded Steffen further in custody following an application from defence counsel, Mr Michael Bowman BL, to allow them to investigate what therapy or treatment would be available to him in Germany in his native language.

Steffen, originally from Gorki Street, Lawnhaamer, Germany was declared a sex offender at an earlier hearing.

Ms Karen O'Connor BL, prosecuting, told Judge O'Donnell that the maximum prison term was five years.

Judge O'Donnell suspended the last two years of the sentence and backdated it to the day Steffen went into custody in June 2007 on condition that he take up a place in a treatment centre in Germany.

He said because he could not order Steffen to return to Germany, he made it a condition of his bond that if he remained in Ireland he must liaise with the Probation Service for two years and carry out any treatment courses recommended by them.

Judge O'Donnell described the material Steffen downloaded as "pretty horrific" and said the offence was closer to the "upper end of the scale".

He noted that Steffen was sharing a house with two people at the time and complimented them for their "brave decision" in contacting gardaí when they saw what he had downloaded. He said that the house mates' conduct "was not the kind seen often enough from law abiding citizens".

Garda Terry Brosnan told Ms O'Connor that child pornography was found on hundreds of CD's as well as 3,895 images and 1,544 movie files on Steffen's laptop and two hard drives after two of his house mates became suspicious of material on his computer and went to gardaí.

Gda Brosnan said child pornographic material was rated in five categories: level five being legal and the least offensive, showing sexualised behaviour from clothed children, to level one depicting pain or involving animals.

He said "enormous amount of material" in this case found fell into categories two to four and depicted children aged from one year old or younger to children in their early teens.

Gda Brosnan said the images involved masochism, masturbation, children exposing their genitalia, having vaginal intercourse, oral sex or being buggered. A large amount of adult pornography was also found.

Steffen was arrested at his workplace and made immediate admissions. He told gardaí he had become interested in looking at the images in 2006 and had been the only person to use the seized computer.

He told gardaí did not take any pictures and was only interested in watching rather then in taking part.

Gda Brosnan said Steffen had no previous convictions, had expressed remorse and cooperated with gardaí.

Gda Brosnan agreed with Mr Bowman that Steffen had come to Ireland in 2005 to work in the hospitality industry. He initially resided in Cavan, then Meath and finally in Dublin.

Gda Brosnan also agreed that the material was downloaded between September 2006 to March 2007 and had been regularly accessed. He further agreed that Steffen had an "illness" because he had sought out material depicting "the systematic rape of children".

Mr Bowman said Steffen had not paid for any of the images but had downloaded them for free from an internet based file sharing site. He said he had not made, disseminated or profited from any of the material.

Steffen had trained as a chef in Germany before completing his military service in Kosovo where he had "seen some traumatic sights".

Mr Bowman said Steffen had "functional English" and asked Judge O'Donnell to take his early guilty plea, material assistance to gardaí, previous good character and consistent work record into account.