Mother reported son to gardaí after finding child porn on phone

A man whose mother reported him to gardaí when she discovered child pornography on his phone has been remanded on bail pending sentence.

Liam Corr (21) had previously been banned by his mother from using a smart phone after she caught him accessing adult material on it.

When gardaí subsequently analysed the device they discovered 28 movie files; 13 of which showed under-age girls engaged in sexual activity with both adults and other children, 14 depicted similarly aged children engaging in more explicit sexual activity and a final video showed a girl engaged in bestiality with a dog.

Corr of Oliver Plunkett Road, Dun Laoghaire, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possessing and distributing child pornography on dates between July 26th, 2015 and August 13th, 2014. He has no previous convictions.

Garda Charlie Dempsey told Caroline Cummings BL, prosecuting that Corr had been using a file sharing app on the smart phone to share the videos.

Corr admitted in Garda interview that he encouraged others users to view the videos so he could trade material with them. He said he deliberately sought out like-minded people.

He agreed with gardaí­ that two children depicted in the movies were aged nine and between 10 or 12 years old. He accepted the videos were child pornography.

Judge Melanie Greally adjourned the case to June 28th next to consider a psychological report before the court.

She also ordered a report from the Probation Service as she said “obviously some structures must be in place to address Corr’s issues”.

Garda Dempsey agreed with Patrick Marrinan SC, defending that the Director of Public Prosecutions had previously dropped a case against Corr.

He accepted that as part of that process Corr was assessed by the Probation Service and deemed to be at a low to moderate risk of re-offending. The report also strongly recommended that he get help in addressing his “significant psychological issues”.

Mr Marrinan handed in a psychological report into court which he said outlined difficulties Corr had with his father as a young child. He said he suffered physical abuse and the man later died by suicide when Corr was eight years old.

Counsel said the report also dealt with “a serious matter” that occurred in Corr’s childhood. He said his client had been “candid” in co-operating with the psychological assessment “in an effort to try and get treatment for what are significant problems”.