A 42-year-old married Co Clare man admitted to gardaí that he is sexually attracted to babies and toddlers aged under three and sought out pornographic material of babies online.
At Ennis Circuit Court on Wednesday, the man admitted to gardaí that he was a Nepiophile or 'Nepi'- a person who is sexually attracted to children aged under three.
In the interview in August 2017, the man admitted that he had sought out pornographic content of girls and boys aged between zero and five.
Asked did he seek out pornographic material of babies, the man said: “That is fair to say.”
The man – who was accompanied to court by his mother today – also admitted to creating child porn by taking photos of two young girls he had come into contact with in Co Clare and sharing images of one of the children with other paedophiles online in a file sharing system.
The man’s online user name was kinderlove82. In one online exchange, a paedophile, ‘babytoddler123’ asked him had he sexually abused a two-year-old girl he had come into contact locally with and the Clare man replied: “Maybe – but try to have our own now so hopefully” on April 18th 2018.
The man told gardaí that his wife had no knowledge of his Nepiophilia and his online activity.
Concerning the man distributing child porn, Det Garda Michael Fitzgerald from the National Cybercrime Bureau said that an examination of the man's two PCs show that he had distributed 29 unique images in 39 messages to other users.
In one message from the man’s kinderlove82 account, he wrote ‘Baby 0-5 B or G’ and Det Fitzgerald said that it indicated baby content from zero to five boy or girl.
Det Fitzgerald said that one user came back to ‘kinderlove82’ with the comment “Awesome baby pics”.
Det Fitzgerald said that gardaí were able to retrieve 337 chat-logs on the online platform sharing the child pornography.
Asked at his garda interview in August 2017 had he ever acted offline over his sexual attraction to children, the man said that he had taken photos of two young girls for his own sexual gratification.
Det Fitzgerald said that the case “is one of the more serious” he has come across due to the age range of the content and the distribution aspect.
Det Fitzgerald said that four images found on one of the man’s computers are of children under one year old and are of a sexual nature.
Pleaded guilty
In the case, the man has pleaded guilty to on September 4th 2013 of knowingly distributing child pornography for the purpose of distribution, publication and exportation contrary to Section 5(1) of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998.
The man has also pleaded guilty to knowingly having in his possession the 7,606 child porn images and 139 video files at a Clare address on the same date contrary to Section 6 (1) of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998.
Det Fitzgerald said that the man told him that he had been sexually abused from age three to 14.
Det Fitzgerald said that the man– who has no previous convictions – told him that he didn’t know how he came across the material but that he was surprised that he found it exciting.
The detective said that the man knew that what he did was wholeheartedly wrong and he said “I apologise”.
Det Sgt Daragh O'Sullivan said that gardaí searched the man's home in September 2013 as a result of intelligence as part of an international investigation between the FBI in the US and the National Criminal Bureau here.
Det Sgt O’Sullivan said that the material seized wasn’t sent forward to the Cyber Crime unit until December 2016 and the delay was due to resource issues at the Cyber Crime unit at the time.
Counsel for the State, Lorcan Connolly BL said that the accused can be named and Judge Gerald Keys said that he will rule on identifying the man at the sentencing date but ordered that the man not be identified at this time.
Counsel for the accused, Mark Nicholas SC said: “This is a very unsavoury tale, there is no doubt about it. It is quite disturbing.”
Mr Nicholas said that his client has pleaded guilty and contributed to the Garda investigation.
Mr Nicholas said that his client has a good history of work and no previous convictions. He said that his client “has taken great steps to deal” with his condition.
Mr Nicholas said that the man hasn’t come under Garda notice since 2013.
Mr Nicholas asked that Judge Keys be as lenient and proportionate when imposing sentence.
Judge Keys remanded the man on continuing bail to May 20th for sentence.
