A 23-year-old man who began viewing child pornography when he was 16 years old out of teenage curiosity was yesterday fined €1,500 and had his name put on the sex offenders register for five years. Barry Roche, Southern Correspondent, reports.
Ryan O'Driscoll from Droumleigh South, Bantry, Co Cork, pleaded guilty earlier this year to possessing child pornography contrary to the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998 at his home on May 27th, 2002.
Yesterday Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin heard evidence from psychiatrist Dr Margaret Ann Schofield that O'Driscoll had responded well to treatment and she believed that he both cognitively and emotionally recognised the gravity of what he had done.
Dr Schofield said she was anxious to get O'Driscoll into group therapy in St John of God's in Dublin but the waiting list was up to a year long though she was confident that there was little risk of O'Driscoll re-offending.
That he had started viewing child pornography when he was just 16 meant that his personality was still flexible while the fact that he had engaged in treatment and had the support of his family were also positives in regard to treating him, said Dr Schofield.
Judge Ó Donnabháin said he had viewed the images from O'Driscoll's computer and there were very explicit images of very young children.
However, there were a number of mitigating factors in his favour. These included the facts that he had no previous convictions, that he had not breached or betrayed any trust by his crime, that he wasn't trading in child pornography images and that he had pleaded guilty and co-operated fully with investigating gardaí.
Taking these into account together with Dr Schofield's belief that there was a minimal risk of O'Driscoll re-offending, Judge Ó Donnabháin fined him €1,500 and ordered his name be put on the Register of Sex Offenders for five years.
Sgt Jim O'Regan told an earlier hearing that information from US authorities on a credit card transaction led them to search O'Driscoll's home where they seized computers.
Garda computer experts at Harcourt Square in Dublin found 159 images and 15 video clips involving young children, said Sgt O'Regan. He said O'Driscoll had been co-operative and had admitted using his parents' credit card to pay for the material.
O'Driscoll's barrister, Ms Marjorie Farrelly, said her client had started looking at this kind of material when he was 16 or 17 before stopping for several months.
But he began looking at it again while he was at home alone recovering from an appendix operation.