Man sought in US on child porn charges further remanded in custody

A man described by an FBI special agent as “the largest facilitator of child porn on the planet”, who had been living at Mountjoy Square, Dublin, has been further remanded in custody by the High Court pending extradition proceedings.

The US authorities are seeking the extradition of Eric Eoin Marques (28) who is alleged to be involved in the distribution of online child pornography.

Mr Marques was arrested in Dublin last Thursday on foot of a provisional extradition warrant issued by a US court on July 29th.

Investigating gardaí and the FBI both objected to bail being granted on grounds including that Mr Marques represented a flight risk.

The court heard evidence that large sums of money had passed through his bank accounts, including large payments sent to accounts in Romania.

The court also heard that a search of Mr Marques’s computer revealed he had made inquires about how to get a visa and entry into Russia.

Following a brief appearance before Mr Justice Paul McDermott at the High Court yesterday, Mr Marques was again remanded in custody until Thursday of next week.

The court previously heard Mr Marques, who has Irish and US citizenship, was arrested on a provisional warrant that records charges of distributing and promoting child pornography on the internet.

Ronan Kennedy, for the Attorney General, yesterday asked the court to further remand Mr Marques in custody until the full request for his extradition was received from the United States.

If the full request was not received within a certain timeframe, then Mr Marques would be released, Mr Kennedy said.

Last week Mr Justice Paul Gilligan refused to grant Mr Marques bail until the extradition request had been determined.

The US authorities are seeking his extradition on four charges. The court he ard that if convicted, he faced sentences of up to 30 years in prison.

The charges relate to images on a large number of websites described as being extremely violent, graphic and depicting the rape and torture of pre-pubescent children.

The charges were brought against Mr Marques following a year-long investigation involving both the FBI in the US and the Garda.