Former civil servant avoids jail term for possessing child abuse material

Has no previous convictions and has not come to Garda attention since the incident

Niall Colgan of Muckross Park, Perrystown, Dublin 12, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography in the form of two indecent videos and two indecent images of children at his home address on February 1, 2022. File picture

A former civil servant who admitted possessing child abuse material has been handed a fully suspended prison sentence.

Niall Colgan, aged 39, told gardaí under caution when they arrived to carry out a search of his home in February 2022 that he “never touched any children, it's all fantasy and the photos of children were taken from Tiktok and Instagram”.