A man who is the sole carer of his wheelchair-bound wife was said at Bandon District Court to have 11,534 images of child pornographic material stored on two computers.
He was remanded on his own bail of €5,000 to appear at Bantry Court on March 26th.
Mr Francis Daams, a Dutch national now living at School Road, Durrus, in west Cork, was charged with having images on his computer consisting of "children partially clothed, children naked, and children engaged in sexual acts".
His council-owned home was searched on May 27th, 2002. That was the same day gardaí launched Operation Amethyst, a major crackdown on the downloading of child porn images from the Internet which led to raids on nearly 100 homes around the country.
Det Sgt Gerry McCarthy gave evidence in Bandon Court of arresting Mr Daams at 9.30 a.m. yesterday and taking him to Bandon Garda station.
He was charged with offences contrary to Section 6.1 of the Child Trafficking and Porno-graphy Act, 1998.
Garda McCarthy said that when the charges were read out Mr Daams did not reply.
Mr Malachy Bowhig, prosecuting, said Mr Daams had been in Ireland for 20 years and lived in a council house in Durrus outside Bantry.
He resided there with his wheelchair-bound wife and was her sole carer.
As a result, Mr Daams was in receipt of a carer's allowance.
Judge Terence Finn asked Det Sgt McCarthy if Mr Daams had any difficulty understanding what he said when he cautioned him in the station.
The court was told that Mr Daams was able to speak fluent English and understood the charges very well.
He was remanded on his own bail of €5,000 to the next sitting of Bantry Court on Friday where it was said the book of evidence would then be ready to be presented.
It was stated that the child pornographic images were stored on two computers.