A former music teacher and church organist has been sentenced to three years in jail on charges related to images and video of child abuse.
Eanna McKenna from College Green, Summerhill, Wexford town, who pleaded guilty in July to possession and distribution charges, was sentenced today at Wexford Circuit Court.
He distributed hundreds of sexually explicit images and video of boys aged between one and 15.
McKenna, 39, is a well-known music teacher in Co Wexford and had given music lessons, both privately and at a number of Wexford secondary schools.
He was also a local choir master and church organist and had performed on a number of television programmes from the county in the past.
He pleaded guilty to having 521 images and 159 video files of child abuse on a personal computer at his home in June 2014.
He also pleaded guilty to knowingly distributing material of child abuse.
The court heard the matter came to light when a man gave a statement to gardaí in June 2014 that he had been in a relationship with McKenna and this man had seen that McKenna had downloaded child abuse material.
Gardaí raided his house two days later and subsequently found the video files and images on a hard drive and laptop.
In the images, many of the children, from two to six years old, were being subjected to abuse by men.
Many of the video files related to boys aged as young as one up to 15, again involving sexual abuse by adults.
Garda Janet Walsh told the court they also found computer records of messenger logs and Skype records where McKenna has used the names "Ross" and "Wexford Choir" in talking to and transferring sexual abuse files to others.
In one messenger conversation, he had disclosed his sexual interest in 12-year-old boys.
Defending barrister Seán Guerin said his client had come to garda attention as a result of a complaint by a former partner with whom his relationship had broken down.
He said there was no evidence of any financial gain and pointed out that many of the images had not been accessed for many years prior to McKenna's arrest.
He said his client had prepared a letter in which he apologised for his actions, saying he had made stupid and bad decisions during his life and must now face the consequences.
He was attending counselling and believed if he had done so earlier in life he would not be where he was now.
Mr Guerin said McKenna was ashamed and embarrassed.
He had learned that this was not a "victimless crime" and felt great distress that by viewing and distributing such images he had put other children at risk.
Mr Guerin said his client had pleaded early and that had saved much time on what would have been a lengthy and complex trial.
He added that his client had undergone extensive psychotherapy, funded by himself, and was committed to understanding what had pushed him to this behaviour.
He had been in treatment for two years and had made great progress. He had a low risk of re-offending and had shown that he could be rehabilitated, Mr Guerin continued.
In sentencing, Judge Barry Hickson said that one had only to look at the "truly horrific and despicable" content to know that truly evil people existed.
"Those who imbibe and distribute are very closely aligned to that category of people. Mr McKenna has sunk into that category."
He said that as horrified as he was, he had to consider basic principles of justice and take various factors into account including the number of glowing testimonials for McKenna, his early plea, his previous good standing in the community, and his letter in which he demonstrated remorse.
However, he said he must impose a custodial sentence and imposed sentences of three years on each of the two counts, to run concurrently.
He told Mr Guerin that he had given credit for the early plea but would not consider suspending any of the sentence, describing it as a "most grave offence."
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
