World's largest purveyor of child abuse material: Irish man gets 27-year sentence in US

US District Judge Theodore Chuang told Eric Eoin Marques that his crimes were the equivalent of those of a drug kingpin. File picture

An Irish man described by US authorities as the world’s most prolific purveyor of child abuse material at the time of his arrest in Ireland was sentenced on Wednesday to 27 years in federal prison.

Eric Eoin Marques created and operated computer servers on the dark web that enabled users to anonymously access millions of illicit images and videos, many depicting the rape and torture of infants and toddlers.