Many of the images featured young children being submitted to sexual assault.
A 31-year-old Wexford man was just handed a two year suspended prison sentence after being caught with hundreds of graphic child abuse on his computer.
According to
The Independent, the accused man's computer was seized after a warrant to search his home was issued back in 2018.
A forensic examination of the lap-top uncovered a series of videos and images, many of them featuring young children being submitted to sexual assault, with the man telling the investigators that he has first discovered the dark web a few years back, and had been fascinated by child porn ever since.
'Of a very serious nature'
The prosecution explained to the court that the material discovered was of a very serious nature, and that on a scale of one to five, 33 videos and seven images in the collection the accused had amassed on his computer were assessed at category four. To put this into perspective, the fifth category is reserved for bestiality and similar aberrations.
Further details of the material held by the accused were given at a previous hearing, but last week, before the Circuit Court in Wexford, the defendant heard a summary of the case against him.
The defence on the other hand argued that the accused had shown remorse for what he had done – and that the offence being considered here took place while the accused was struggling with mental health issues.
Taking into account that the accused had received threats of physical violence and that his father’s car had been damaged since the garda raid, the judge handed down a suspended two-year sentence – but explained that the convicted man would be put on the sex offenders register for five years.
He was also put on probation and ordered to take courses as directed by probation staff, with the judge also granting an order for the destruction of the man's computer.
