A former Donegal priest who pleaded guilty to a charge of having more than 3,000 child pornographic images in his possession at his home last year was sentenced to two years in jail at Letterkenny Circuit Court today.
The court heard details of how gardaí seized the images after searching the home of Paul McDaid (38), 12 College Park, Letterkenny, on May 27th, 2002, as part of a nationwide swoop on people suspected of downloading pornography from the Internet.
A priest from 1989 until 1996, he was employed as a health promotion worker with the North Western Health Board at the time of the offence, and was well known in the local community.
Judge Matthew Deery recalled that evidence had revealed that McDaid had 3,474 images of child porn. Some of these were of children as young as three or four.
Delivering his judgment, Judge Matthew Deery said that he had taken into account the fact that McDaid had pleaded guilty to the offence under the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act, 1998. McDaid had also co-operated fully with the gardaí and had voluntarily sought counselling as well as showing great remorse.
An application for leave to appeal was refused. Mr McDaid will also now be named on the Sex Offenders' Register. The final six months of the sentence were suspended.