A garda has been convicted of possessing images and videos of children being subjected to sexual acts.
Joseph O'Connor, 58, had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to five counts of possessing child pornography at his home in West Dublin between 30 July and 2 August 2011.
After deliberating for just over two hours, a jury of ten men and two women found him guilty of four offences.
He was acquitted on one count which dealt with duplicates of two images.
Some of the images and videos showed children younger than ten years old.
Defence Counsel Paul Carroll said that O'Connor is a long term serving garda and has been suspended since these matters arose.
He asked for time for his client to be able to gather reports for the court for the sentence hearing.
Judge Elma Sheehan remanded O'Connor on continuing bail until 12 November.
The court heard that gardaí seized a laptop during a search of O'Connor's home on 2 August 2011.
Videos found in the computer's recycle bin showed boys under the age of ten being subjected to sexual acts.
Other videos showed boys under 17 being subjected to sexual acts with a man.
There were also images of children sexually exposed or being subjected to sexual acts.
O'Connor claimed in garda interviews that he had never seen the material before and denied downloading it. He described it as "sick" and said someone else must have downloaded the files.
He claimed a man who came to his house for sex - Patryk Farrell - days before the laptop was seized had corrupted his computer.
He told gardaí hundreds of men had come back to his home for sex and any of them could freely use his laptop.
Prosecuting counsel Alice Fawsitt told the jury the State had to prove beyond reasonable doubt that O'Connor knew the files were on his laptop.
She said there was no evidence of any virus and no evidence that anything might have happened to the computer the weekend before it was seized.
In legal argument in the absence of the jury, the court heard gardaí went to O'Connor's home in August 2011 to investigate allegations of assault by Mr Farrell. The laptop was seized as part of that investigation.
Mr Farrell's allegations were also forwarded to the Garda Ombudsman but Mr Farrell did not co operate with this investigation and it was dropped.
An internal garda investigation concluded there was no basis for the allegations of false imprisonment, rape or sexual assault and that the injuries alleged by Mr Farrell were the consequences of sexual acts.
The investigation was carried out by the late Inspector Colm Fox.
Patryk Farrell is also since deceased.
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