Suspended sentence for man who had baby rape video on phone

A man who told his supervisor he emailed him a video of a baby being raped to highlight the dangers of child sexual exploitation has avoided being jailed.

Frank Kamara (29) with an address at Loreto Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of child pornography on January 17th, 2018.

Garda Joanne Grogan told Gerardine Small BL, prosecuting, that Kamara was working as a member of a cleaning crew at a shopping centre in Dublin city.

On the date of the offence he sent a video to his supervisor who viewed the video for two seconds and was shocked and immediately deleted it.

He confronted Kamara who tearfully explained he sent the video to highlight the dangers of child sexual exploitation and to warn him not leave his own children with people he did not trust. Kamara agreed to attend a Garda station at his supervisor’s urging.

Garda Grogan said the video showed a male adult who was naked from the waist down recording himself raping a boy approximately one or two years of age. The video was four minutes and 59 seconds in duration.

Garda Grogan agreed with Roisin Lacey SC, defending, that her client was in no way responsible for the production of the video. Kamara told gardaí­ he had been sent the video by a woman in Nigeria and had deleted it after he sent it to his supervisor.

Ms Lacey said it was a “rather unusual case” due to the circumstances in which the video came to light and the video was the only example of child pornography found on her client’s phone. She said the case was “very obviously a once off” situation.

She submitted that Kamara volunteered regularly at a charity shop and has made donations to Temple Street Children’s Hospital and Barnardo’s Children’s Charity despite his modest income. He is now working as an assistant chef and was working as a cleaner at the time of the offence.

Karmara's wife from an arranged marriage is currently living in Nigeria and he has one child. Kamara, who has no previous convictions, is originally from Sierra Leone, but has lived in Ireland since 2009 and became a citizen in 2015.

Judge Elma Sheahan said she accepted that this was a "one off offence" in which Kamara had shown very bad judgement. She said the aggravating factor in the case was the seriousness of the offence.

Judge Sheahan said the mitigating factors were Kamara’s guilty plea, his self-reporting of the offence, his co-operation with gardaí, his remorse, his good work history, his previous good character, his contributions to charity and his lack of understanding of the seriousness of his actions.

She said in the absence of mitigation the appropriate sentence was 12 months imprisonment. She suspended the sentence on condition that he keep the peace and be of good behaviour for a period of 12 months.