Young Corkman who used app to distribute child abuse images avoids jail

The judge said: “If the court does not treat these matters seriously it would be failing in its duty.”

The judge imposed a six-month suspended prison sentence. File picture: Larry Cummins

An app containing child abuse images was used by a young Cork man for the further distribution of such images and now he has been given a six-month suspended jail term.

The Director of Public Prosecutions said the case could be dealt with summarily at Cork District Court on a plea of guilty.

21-year-old Daniel O’Mahony of 11 Carrig Court, Carrig Na Bhfear, County Cork, pleaded guilty to the charge of possessing files containing videos of child pornography and distributing them.

The Garda Protective Services Unit was alerted to certain activity on the particular app. On April 21, 2021, the defendant’s home was searched and a mobile device was located with five files. Three of them depicted children involved in sexual acts or witnessing them and two showed children in some state of undress where they were exposed.

Judge Olann Kelleher said to defence solicitor Frank Buttimer that he accepted what the young man stated in his probation report that he would not come before the court ever again and had no previous convictions. However, he said the message had to go out that the children in the images are victims.

Mr Buttimer said it was a very bad error of judgement by the young man who had excellent support from a very decent family.

Noting all of that, the judge said: “I don’t know what arrangements he had about distributing these terrible images of children but if the court does not treat these matters seriously it would be failing in its duty.” The judge imposed a six-month suspended prison sentence.

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