Alleged terrorist is jailed for ten years after he is caught with images of child abuse material and components of firearms in Dublin hostel

By Sonya McLean

An alleged terrorist who was caught in a Dublin hostel with various components of firearms and documentation in relation to the assembly of the weapons has been jailed for 10 years.

Mark Wolf (37), a UK national, had already had bench warrants issued for his arrest in the UK after he absconded to Ireland from two different prosecutions there in April and June 2021.

These offences related to charges of terrorism and two charges of making indecent photographs of a child.

Gardaí were able to establish that Wolf had been living in a hostel in Gardiner Street, Dublin, after he sought to import firearm components from the United States.

During the raid of Wolf’s Dublin hostel room in 2021, gardaí confiscated four mobile phones which were later analysed.

The phones were found to contain images of child abuse material including Snapchat conversations between Wolf and two different teenage girls, one of which involved both Wolf and the girl engaging in separate sex acts over Snapchat.

Detective Garda Gareth Kane told Eoin Lawlor BL, prosecuting, that in addition to the images of child abuse material, there were images and videos on Wolf’s phone including images of human suffering such as a foetus being made into soup, a woman shooting herself in the face and males being decapitated, dismembered and repeatedly shot.

Gardaí also found a video of a live stream of the mass shooting on two mosques in Christchurch New Zealand in March 2019 and texts sent to Wolf’s phone referencing the killing of children on a regular basis.

They also discovered that Wolf made bids for domain address such as padeo-info and paedo-rights and evidence that he had accessed the dark web and accessed a site that contained a list of resources of child abuse material.

During the raid, gardaí found various components that would be used in the assembly or manufacture of semi-automatic weapons, including a buffer spring and buffer tube and documentation with instructions on how to put them together.

Officers also found military goggles, tactical gloves, flick knifes and an array of military tents and sleeping bags and other items such as badges and a flag consistent with the nazi regime and right wing movements.

Wolf, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to four charges of being in possession of the component parts of a firearm, a possession of electronic document in relation to the assembly of a firearm, three charges of importing component parts of a firearm into the State and three charges of knowingly being in possession of child pornography on dates in June 2021.

He had previous convictions from the UK including assault, causing grievous bodily harm, firearm offences and battery.

Det Gda Kane said it became apparent during the investigation that Wolf had been receiving packages to his hostel room – mostly from Asia but also Holland.

The items received were used in the construction of firearms and included silencers, triggers and trigger bars for semi-automatic pistol, a complete set of pins and ten magazine springs.

Eight videos of child abuse material were found on Wolf’s phone which had been created by a group called Loli Island and showed children from between three and 11 years old engaging in sexual acts with male children and adult males.

There were also two Snapchat conversations with teenage girls which included a video of a 16-year-old girl engaging in a sex act while Wolf was also engaging in a sex act in a separate location.

The second Snapchat conversation included Wolf sending an intimate picture of himself to a girl who was aged between 12 and 14 years old. He asked the child to rate his penis and asked her to engage in sexual activity with him, while pretendng to be 12 years old.

Wolf was arrested and taken in for questioning on two separate occasion but nothing came out of those interviews.

Dean Kelly SC, defending, said his client left school at the age of 12, at the behest of his mother to assist her following her diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Wolf had also been treated in a mental health day centre in London following a diagnosis of bi-polar and post traumatic stress disorder.

Mr Kelly submitted that it would have been a lengthy and complex trial and asked Judge Martin Nolan to accept that his client’s guilty pleas were of assistance in this regard.

Judge Nolan said Wolf was an industrious man who had procured these items and it had “presumably” been his intention to put together a firearm.

He said analysis of the phones “demonstrated this man had interest in violent means and had hostility towards certain groups” He described the material found as “obnoxious”.

Judge Nolan took into account Wolf’s “very important and very valuable” pleas of guilty before he imposed concurrent terms of 10 years in prison for the firearm offences and two years for the possession of child abuse material.

The sentences were backdated to when Wolf first went into custody in June 2021.