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A 41-YEAR old Shannon man has had to move house twice since his child pornography downloading offences were made public.
That is according to counsel for Ciaran Moore, Brian McInerney BL, who said that his client now faces “a life sentence of condemnation and opprobrium within the society in which he lives”.
Mr Moore has pleaded guilty to the possession of 531 child explicit images and 24 child explicit movies at his former home in the greater Tullyvarraga area of Shannon, Co Clare.
Addressing Ennis Circuit Court, Mr McInerney said that society “is not happy about Mr Moore residing in the neighbourhood and that has led to Mr Moore having to move house on two separate occasions”.
He said: “Cases of this nature receive very extensive media coverage as this has done. This will become once again a live issue as the members of the fourth estate are lined up – doubtless editors are waiting to put some lurid headline over the piece and doubtless photographers are lurking in the vicinity to take more photographs.”
Mr McInerney said: “Of course they are entitled to this – that is the democracy we live in, but that will have an impact on the accused.”
Mr McInerney said that Mr Moore’s “employment chances are great prejudiced – any CV that includes a conviction such as this would be thrown into the waste paper basket by any employer”.
‘Justice denied’
Mr Moore walked free from court after Judge Gerald Keys imposed a three-year suspended jail term on the man.
Judge Keys said that a factor in not imposing a jail term was the “undue delay” by the State in prosecuting the case.
The offences took place on October 31st and November 1st 2012 and a lack of resources at the time at the Garda Cyber Crime unit in examining the computer evidence contributed to the delay in the case coming to court.
Judge Keys said: “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
Mr Moore first pleaded guilty to the offences in June of last year and the case was adjourned from last November for the preparation of a psychiatric report on Mr Moore which has found that he is not suffering from any psychiatric illness.
Mr McInerney said that Mr Moore had suggested to gardaí that he was “a paedophile hunter” as the reason for downloading the child porn.
Mr Moore told gardaí that he reported the child pornography to websites but could not provide the names of those websites.
Mr Moore told gardaí that he “was saving the child porn as it might be needed as evidence in any future investigation”.
However, Judge Keys rejected that Mr Moore was downloading the child porn images as part of a crusade against those producing child pornography.
Judge Keys said: “I fail to see how this personal crusade of yours could have assisted law enforcement agencies to prevent downloading this type of material.”
Mr McInerney said Mr Moore “spent far too much time in a dark room on a computer and should have been doing other things”.
Cyber Crime Unit
Judge Keys said that Mr Moore had pleaded guilty, has no previous convictions, co-operated with gardaí and has shown remorse.
In evidence, expert witness, Det Garda Ciara Scully of the Garda National Cyber Crime Unit said that some of the images found include girls as young as three and four in sexually explicit activity.
Det Scully said that other images show male adults engaging in penetrative sex with pre-pubescent children in videos.
Det Scully said that Mr Moore had encrypted the child pornography material and it took gardaí two years to break a password on a computer that led to more child pornography images.
The password on the computer was “Iampowerful.”
Counsel for the State, Lorcan Connolly BL raised concerns over the psychiatric report where Mr Moore stated that he accepted what he did was technically breaking the law and doesn’t believe that he requires treatment.
Mr Moore denied any sexual interest in male or female children and denied watching any material depicting the sexual abuse of children for sexual purposes.
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Puts are own problems and concerns into a different perspective.
Where has the humanity gone? Climate change is manifesting itself every day in some or other part of the world.
These poor people, just trying to live and look after their families, totally powerless in the face of what the climate is doing to them, dependent on the charity and goodwill of others.
And on the other hand, you have the like of Putin and Johnson, selfish, power hungry men, totally oblivious to the suffering they are causing to the people around them.
I fear for the future of the world and if there is a God, I hope that he balances things out for all of mankind, and soon.
@Mary Walshe: We can’t wait to have perfect leaders or perfect climate or even for a god to do something. People are dying right now and we can change that Right now all those people need is food and surely you and i and everyone else can do that. I’m glad they can depend in a little way on their fellow man to help them ,ie charities. So until that better world comes let’s just put our hands in our pockets and help. That’s humanity, in action! It’s in our control.
Ever since I was a little boy and that was not yesterday, there has been famine and suffering in Africa. Charities have applied much needed ‘plasters’ to each problem but the problems continue. Politicians have bled their people dry and created vast wealth for themselves in the process and local politicians have used their positions in well paid jobs in charities as stepping boards to better paid jobs in politics, where they promote themselves and forget about the charities. Donations, much of which go, not to those in need but to CEO’s salaries and collectors commission. A radical approach has to be taken and focused on the political systems within those countries by those World bodies i.e. the U.N. so little starving girls can plan for their long term future. Charities know that without tackling the politicians/U.N. etc they, albeit unintentionally, prolong the little girls suffering and lack of hope. Plasters won’t prevent hunger. These people deserve better.
@Barrycelona: Very true. But also, what kind of person has numerous kids knowing that some or all of them will die from malnutrition or starvation because they can’t take care of them.
@Jim Smith: Poverty!! Just like Ireland in pre war times. It was inevitable that several children would die and that was one of the reasons people had such large families. Poorer families have always had more children. The more children that survived, the greater chance of a bigger ‘ income’. Men also have a lot to answer for, in the way they used and treated women, even in today’s World
@Jim Smith: Poverty!! Just like Ireland in pre war times. It was inevitable that several children would die and that was one of the reasons people had such large families. Poorer families have always had more children. The more children that survived, the greater chance of a bigger ‘ income’. Men also have a lot to answer for, in the way they used and treated women, even in today’s World.
@Barrycelona: Well no matter how poor I was, I wouldn’t have many children knowing that I couldn’t feed all of them and that some will die because I might get more money. That’s sick. The thing is that the Africans that I work with agree with me. The media seems to portray Africans as helpless sadists. Many are highly educated and intelligent people who care if their children live or die.
Why is this under ‘Ukraine’ news?
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