A former national school principal and member of the Christian Brothers was convicted yesterday at Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court on one count of possessing child pornography.
Pádraig Branigan (41), The Pines, Mountainbay, Arklow, entered a plea of guilty yesterday morning before Judge Michael O'Shea. He received a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence, suspended for three years. He has also been placed on the sex offenders register.
Det Sgt James Madden told the court that Branigan came to the attention of gardaí following a 2003 US global investigation into internet child pornography.
Following a search of the above address on October 2nd, 2004, Branigan was found to be in possession of 10,000 separate images, all of which showed children, predominantly between the ages of 10 and 14, engaged in explicit sexual acts.
In addition, 200 movie files were also recovered, together with 100 child porn stories in text format depicting children engaged in sexual activity.
Branigan, who was employed as principal of Arklow Boys' National School at the time, admitted to gardaí that he was aware the children were underage and said he had obtained the material from Thailand.
Sgt Madden confirmed, under questioning from Paul Murray SC acting on behalf of the DPP, that Branigan used the images for personal sexual gratification.
Sample video files and images were shown to Judge O'Shea for his consideration. Sgt Madden said he would place the images, which depicted the "victimisation of children, very vulnerable children", in the mid-range as regards severity.
He also confirmed that an investigation was conducted to rule out the possibility that Branigan had abused children under his care. No evidence was found to suggest that he had done so.
At the time of the offence, Branigan had been a "chronic" drinker and Sgt Madden believed him to be a "lonely and decrepit individual", who had been leading a "secret life".
The court heard through Bridget Hussey, a psychotherapist with the Granada Institute, that Branigan joined the Christian Brothers at age 16½, and was later trained as a teacher. During that time his sexuality troubled him. "He never owned his sexuality or accepted that he was a gay man," she told the court.
Judge O'Shea said Branigan had been in possession of "an enormous amount of images" depicting the sexual exploitation of young children. However, he said he could not place him in the category of a "cold blooded paedophile".