Accessed child porn while at “loose end” during Covid lockdown

By Eimear Dodd

A man who was at a “loose end” while out of work during a Covid lockdown accessed child abuse material, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard.

Richard Cox (40) pleaded guilty to one count of possession of  child pornography on October 26, 2020.

Detective Garda Dara McNally told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today that gardai obtained confidential information that there was child abuse material at an address in Tallaght.

Gardai carried out a search on October 26, 2020 and seized a mobile phone, two Xboxes and a usb stick. Child abuse material was only found on the mobile phone.

269 images and 39 videos of child abuse material were found on the phone.

The videos and 53 of the images were classed as category one, containing explicit material of children engaged in or witnessing sexual activity.

In addition, a production order was sought from Google Ireland and 110 images and 37 videos were recovered, which had been uploaded to the cloud via an automatic process.

The court heard that while accessing the material on the phone, these particular images and videos were backed up automatically without any proactive action by Cox.

Cox was present during the search and made admissions to gardai at the house and when later interviewed.

The court heard that Cox of Tamarisk Avenue, Tallaght has no previous convictions.

Det Gda McNally agreed with Kieran Kelly BL, defending, that his client had entered an early guilty plea and has not come to recent garda attention.

He further accepted that material was automatically uploaded to the cloud after it was accessed on the device and Cox had no active role in this.

It was also agreed that there was no attempt to distribute the material.

Mr Kelly said this offence occurred during a Covid-19 lockdown while his client – who has a good work history – was not working.

He said his client was at a “loose end” at home where he was taking drugs, drinking and accessing pornography.

This deteriorated into him “looking for child abuse material”.

Counsel said a psychological report outlined that his client was “repulsed but could not resist” and has been referred for specific therapy to deal with his underlying addiction issues.

He asked the court to take into consideration the early guilty plea and his client’s co-operation with gardai.

He said his client instructs he is now sober.

Judge Martin Nolan said he took into account the nature of the material found on the phone and the mitigating factors.

He said the court considers Cox is unlikely to re-offend to a great degree in the future and it appears his “underlying addiction problems led him astray during Covid”.

He imposed a two and a half year sentence on Cox, which he suspended in full on strict conditions.