Man caught with child porn worked in juvenile residental unit

A former worker at a juvenile residential unit has been given a suspended sentence for possession of child pornography.

Philip Devereux (51) was tracked through his email address after the Toronto Police Department passed on information to Interpol relating to individuals who had bought DVDs from a Canadian firm involved in the distribution of child pornography.

Devereux, of St Michan’s House, Greek Street, Dublin, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography at his home on January 9th, 2013. He has no previous convictions.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard gardaí­ recovered a laptop containing 24 images, a floppy disk containing six child sex stories and 13 DVDs containing images of nude or partially nude pre-pubescent boys.

Judge Martin Nolan said he accepted the quantity of images in this investigation was not too great but said it was nevertheless a serious case.

Passwords

He noted that Devereux had pleaded guilty, co-operated with the gardaí­ and handed over the devices and passwords. He said Devereux had no prior record and had taken steps to address his problem.

Judge Nolan noted the case had been "hanging over" Devereux, as it had been delayed by a lack of resources to deal with the "avalanche" of material to be analysed at the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau (GNCCB).

He said the higher courts had given direction that in a case where an accused person had no criminal record and there was no distribution or other aggravating factors, then a non-custodial sentence should be considered. Judge Nolan said in relation to Devereux he did not feel a custodial sentence was justified. He imposed a 2½ year sentence which he suspended in full.

Bernard Condon SC, defending, said his client had been in employment all his life and at the time had been working at a residential unit. He said Devereux had been suspended from work without pay.

He asked the court to take into account that the conviction would have very significant consequences for his client and would be a mark on him forever.