Former Central Bank manager convicted of child-pornography possession

A former Central Bank manager has been convicted of possessing hundreds of thousands of child pornography images at his home in Dublin city.

Raphael Farina of Sprangers Yard, Crow st, Temple Bar faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced next month.

It took the jury just 22 minutes to convict Raphael Farina on three charges of knowingly possessing child pornography in June 2007.

When gardaí raided the 65-year-old’s apartment, they found 10,000 graphic images including pictures of babies and toddlers on his computer’s hard drive.

The accused also gave police a box containing CDs, floppy discs and DVDs and told them he had been downloading child pornography for 10 years and there was "no point denying it".

In total the court heard he had access to around 700,000 files, some of which he stored at work.

Mr Farina unsuccessfully challenged the validity of the search warrant used by gardaí but did not contest the evidence.

He has been remanded on bail for sentencing on February 7.