The jury has been discharged in the trial of a retired garda charged with possession of child pornography.
Eight images of children engaged in sexual activity and further explicit images of children were found on the computer hard drives of the former garda, the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee heard on the second day of a trial.
John McHugh, 64, of Ard na Lí, Tralee, County Kerry, had pleaded not guilty to a charge of knowingly possessing child pornography in electronic format between 3 August 2006 and 29 May 2009.
He had served as member of the garda for many years, the trial heard.
A key issue in the case would be the matter of knowingly being in possession of the images, defence counsel John O'Sullivan said at outset.
Memos of garda interviews were put to Sergeant Tim O'Keeffe of Tralee gardaí by prosecuting counsel Tom Rice.
The hard drives of two computers removed from the sitting room of the family home had been examined by the Computer Crime Investigation Unit.
Eight images found were of children engaged in sexual activity and 28 were explicit images of children. A further seven were cartoons of children considered pornographic.
Initially, Mr McHugh told gardaí child pornography images would "pop up" when he browsed adult porn sites.
In Newcastle West, where he was brought for questioning after being arrested by appointment, he said he accessed the child sites out of "curiosity". He also said he had had an interest in child pornography for a number of years, but no longer did.
He got no gratification and did not enjoy looking at child pornography. "The opposite" he replied. It was more an addiction, he said. He agreed the children in the images were aged around 10 to 12.
"My thing is mature porn," he said in the memo put to the court.
He would visit different sites at night time when his wife was in bed. He denied being part of a group where he would be alerted by email or sharing the images by email.
Mr McHugh told gardaí he had put the images on the computer for his own use. Only he and his wife lived in the house.
Cross-examined by defence counsel John O'Sullivan, Sgt O'Keeffe denied saying to Mr McHugh while on the way to Newcastle West that images had been found on his computer "and if it wasn't images he downloaded, some member of his family would be responsible".
Sgt O'Keeffe said he did not mention other members of his family. He also denied it had been "conveyed" to Mr McHugh during a break that a CD of the images would be shown to his wife.
Mr McHugh was a retired member of the gardai, he had never come to garda notice, witness agreed with the defence counsel.
A legal issue arose shortly before lunchtime and the jury was asked to retire.
When recalled, Judge Thomas E O'Donnell told the six men and six women it was "appropriate" that he discharge them. He excused them from jury duty for five years.
Mr McHugh has been remanded on continuing bail and the matter has gone back to the next callover list.
