Garda found with child porn to be sentenced in January

A garda convicted last week of possessing images and videos of children being subjected to sexual acts will be sentenced in January.

Joseph O’Connor (58), from west Dublin, had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to five counts of possession of child pornography at his home on dates between January 1st, 2010 and August 2nd, 2011.

During a search of his home on August 2nd, 2011, gardaí­ investigating other allegations seized a laptop. A subsequent analysis of the computer found videos in the ‘recycle bin’ depicting boys under the age of ten being subjected to sexual acts.

After his arrest O’Connor told gardaí­ that he had never seen the material before and denied downloading it. He somebody else must have downloaded the files.

He said he believed that a man, Patryk (sic) Farrell, who came to his home for sex, days before the laptop was seized, had corrupted his computer.

Last week a jury returned unanimous verdicts of guilty on four counts. The jury acquitted him of one count, which dealt with 56 duplicates of two images, but he was found guilty of possessing the two originals of these images which were found in a computer folder named ‘Spanked Boys’.

Judge Elma Sheahan on Monday remanded O'Connor on continuing bail to January 14th next. O'Connor has been suspended from An Garda Síochána since these matters arose.