A Galway city man pleaded guilty before Galway District Court yesterday to purchasing child pornography from an American Internet site, using his credit card.
Conor Molloy (28), Cúirt na Trá, Salthill, Galway, was arrested and charged last May during Operation Amethyst, the nation-wide Garda crackdown on child pornography. He pleaded guilty yesterday to being in possession of child pornography on May 27th last, contrary to Section 6 (1) of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act, 1998. Sgt Michael Coppinger gave evidence that he searched the house of the accused and took possession of a laptop computer. It was examined by Garda computer experts who found 179 pornographic images of children, ranging in age from 10 to 16. Most of these images showed nude children, but eleven images showed children engaged in sexual activity, he said.
Molloy co-operated fully in the Garda investigation. Sgt Coppinger said he was satisfied the images were for Molloy's own use and he had not distributed them to anybody else. The images had been purchased from an American service provider and Molloy had used his credit card for that purpose. His arrest, the sergeant added, had come as a result of Operation Amethyst. The credit card purchase had been made in April 1999, and had been traced back to the accused.
Sgt Coppinger said other transactions in US dollars had been made to other child porn service providers, but he did not have evidence in court to sustain that.
State solicitor Mr William Kennedy said the DPP was consenting to summary disposal in the District Court because the accused had pleaded guilty. He said Molloy had no previous convictions of any kind. Sgt Coppinger added that the accused came from a good background.
Defending solicitor Mr Jarlath McInerney said he wished to have a professional witness give evidence on behalf of his client and he applied for an adjournment to bring that witness to court. Judge John Garavan adjourned the matter to April 28th next.