A judge has ordered that an American man who admitted having child pornography should be escorted by gardai to Dublin Airport this week for a flight back to the US.
Thomas O'Shaughnessy (45), originally from Arizona, currently of no fixed address, was given the option by Judge David Anderson in the Dublin Circuit Court of leaving or facing a four-month prison sentence.
He pleaded guilty last week to having 125 images of child pornography downloaded from the Internet and stored on floppy disks. He was remanded in custody until yesterday for gardai to arrange to bring forward his return flight, which was booked for the end of May.
Yesterday the court heard his Aer Lingus ticket had been changed to allow him to fly out to Boston tomorrow. He is to be held in Cloverhill Prison until then and escorted by Det Sgt Malachy Dunne to the airport.
Det Sgt Dunne told the court last week that the offence came to light when Customs alerted gardai about a package for O'Shaughnessy, which had been sent through a shipping company in Mulhuddart.
O'Shaughnessy collected the package, which included the disks, signed for it and was arrested shortly afterwards. There were 73 disks, 57 of which were examined as the remainder were damaged. They held 345 images, 125 of which contained the child pornography.
The case was adjourned yesterday to next Wednesday after he was told about the new flight arrangements. If O'Shaughnessy is still in the State on that day Judge Anderson will impose a four-month prison sentence. He will make a forfeiture order for the pornographic material next week.