Judge adjourns child pornography sentence

A Dublin father-of-two who had more than 51,000 images and videos of child abuse on his home computer has had his sentence adjourned.

Kieran Kavanagh, 51, of St Catherine's Court, Newgrove Avenue, Sandymount, pleaded guilty to possessing the material at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

The court was told that the images were at the 'top end of the scale' for these type of offences in terms of volume and depicted everything from explicit sexual images of children to a video of the graphic rape of a child.

Gardaí told the court that after acting on information from German authorities, Kavanagh's home was searched and his computers seized. A total of 51,341 images and 102 movie files were found.

Gardaí agreed that Kieran Kavanagh admitted to them that illegal images would be found on his computer and that he pleaded guilty at an early stage.

Defence Counsel Remy Farrell said his client had made contact with the Granada Institute for sex offenders but could not afford to attend a treatment programme.

However funding had been found for a clinical assessment at the institute, and he asked the court to adjourn sentencing until that assessment is complete.

He said it was obviously a more serious case than a lot of others of its type, but the consideration of a clinical report would be important when considering sentence.

Mr Farrell said Mr Kavanagh was a separated father of two grown children whose marriage had failed when 'he became aware of his sexual identity'. He was now unemployed with a bleak future, he said.

Judge Katherine Delahunt adjourned the case until 1 March next and ordered that as part of his bail conditions, gardaí be allowed to inspect his computer.