Cork student who shared child sexual abuse video on Snapchat spared jail

Bandon man pleaded guilty to possession of videos and images

The judge imposed a suspended two-year sentence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

A student who shared a child sexual abuse video on his Snapchat group acted immaturely and naïvely believing at the time that what he was doing was a joke.

As Judge Sinead Behan imposed a fully suspended sentence on Yahia Rfaai, aged 22, of Heron Court, Bandon, County Cork, she acknowledged that the man never searched for the items that had been shared to him on his Snapchat.

He pleaded guilty to possession of five of the most serious category 1 images and five category 1 videos, along with 43 category 2 images and 29 category 2 videos. He also admitted distributing one video by sharing it with others on Snapchat.

Judge Behan had remanded the young man in custody on February 10 but imposed a suspended two-year sentence today at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

The man said he had no interest in the material and at the time when he shared it he was trying to be funny.

The judge accepted that the man, who had no previous convictions, was naïve and without sophistication in his actions and used his own email address in the matters.

Judge Behan commented that there were a lot of pro-social factors in the man’s life, not least his progress in education.