Young Corkman caught with child abuse images on his phone has sentence suspended

The 21-year-old has to engage with the Safer Lives programme to address his issues

The judge imposed a six-month suspended sentence on the man. File photo

A young man caught with images of child sex abuse had his jail sentence suspended on condition that he would engage with the Safer Lives programme to address his issues.

Sergeant Gearóid Davis outlined the background to the case against Adam Murphy Power at Cork District Court where the young man pleaded guilty to possession of the child abuse images.

The Online Child Exploitation Unit of An Garda Síochána established that the accused might be in possession of child sex abuse images at his home.

Gardaí attended at his home at Ashbrook Heights, Togher, Cork, last year with a search warrant and one device was seized.

Ten videos and 11 images of child pornographic material were discovered. These consisted of seven videos and six images depicting children under the age of 17 engaged in sexual activity or witnessing it. The remaining videos and images included images of children under the age of 17 with their genital areas exposed.

When questioned about possessing the material the defendant, who is now 21 years old, admitted the offences.

Frank Buttimer, defence solicitor, said: “Gardaí investigating this would accept that the initial access to this material was unwitting and unintentional. Some elements of the particular website were OK, some aspects were absolutely not.

He allowed it to remain on his phone. Had he deleted it, he might not have come to their attention. It was the retention of the material that caused the prosecution.

“He has cooperated fully with the probation service. He would be satisfied to participate in a programme. He has learned a lesson from this.” 

Judge Olann Kelleher said it was a serious matter but that the accused did not distribute material. The judge said the material involved images of children who were sexually abused.

The judge said the defendant has no previous convictions and that this presented as an isolated incident by a young and introverted man.

Judge Kelleher said he would take the suggestion of the probation service and imposed a six-month sentence suspended on condition that the young man would engage with the Safer Lives programme and adhere to all directions from the probation service.

“If you don’t cooperate with the probation service it comes back to court immediately,” the judge said.