Man thought of child-pornography images as 'trophies'

A Polish man who was caught looking at child pornography in an internet cafe, leading to the discovery of more than 1,000 images in his home, has had his sentence adjourned for six months to allow further interaction with the Probation Services.

Radoslaw Psuj (aged 34), a political science graduate, told gardaí he did not get sexual pleasure from the images but saw them as a "trophy" for finding them and "being better than the computer programme."

Psuj, of The Oaks, Pelletstown Manor, River Road, Ashtown pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the files at his former address and at the internet cafe on July 28, 2006

He was working for a security company in Ireland and was in Cybernet internet cafe on North Circular Road when a customer noticed he was looking at sexual images of children.

The customer alerted a nearby garda and a computer was taken for examination from his then home in Portland Street North where he lived with his pregnant girlfriend.

Detective Garda Jim Clavin told prosecuting counsel, Ms Úna Ni Raifeartaigh BL, that a USB drive and CPU containing nearly 1,000 images, seven movies and 12 written stories involving child pornography were found there.

Det garda Clavin said many files recovered from deleted folders "showed an on-going pattern of viewing".

Psuj told gardaí he would download the images in the internet cafe and transfer them via USB to his home computer. He said he would not go online specifically to view the images but would get bored and start looking for them because he was "curious" and found them "surprising".

Defence counsel, Mr Erwan Mill-Arden SC, said Psuj "wished to apologise to the people of Ireland for abusing the law".

Mr Mill-Arden said Psuj had been in the country a few months when he was arrested and was anxious to return to Poland where his girlfriend lived with his 14-month-old son.

This was the second time the case had been adjourned. Previously a Probation report was ordered which assessed Psuj as being at low risk of reoffending.

The report suggested that the defendant would benefit from continued interaction with the Probation Service and Judge Desmond Hogan put the matter back until April next year.