A college lecturer who downloaded 12 child pornographic images to his laptop computer used them to pretend to other users on the Internet that he was the girl in the photographs although he had no sexual interest in minors, a sex addiction counsellor told a court yesterday.
Mr Donal Storey (48), Marino Green, Dublin, pleaded guilty to possessing the images at his home on May 27th last year.
Dublin District Court heard that he was detected as a result of an investigation by the US postal service when he used his credit card to buy the images.
Garda Anthony Grehan said that when Mr Storey's home was searched and his computer seized he immediately admitted that there were child pornographic images on it. Later analysis by the Garda computer section confirmed this.
The court heard that before the offence he had been receiving counselling for self-injury and negative self-image. He was later referred to sexual addiction expert Mr Owen Steevens because he was at that stage addicted to adult pornography.
When the child pornography was discovered, Mr Steevens assessed the defendant as to his motivation and found that he used an image to "take on the identity of the female portrayed in it".
It was unlike other child pornography cases in that he did not use the images for self-gratification and there was only a small number of images involved, whereas normally one would expect hundreds or thousands of different pictures.
Asked by Mr Luan O'Braonáin, for Mr Storey, for his views on whether his client would fall into the category of a paedophile, Mr Steevens said: "I saw no evidence to show a sexual interest in minors or that he poses a threat to minors."
The court heard that the images involved were, in terms of seriousness, at the "lower end" of the child pornography scale.
Mr Steevens said he had not looked at the images as they had no relevance to his assessment in terms of motivation from a psychological point of view.
Since Mr Storey first appeared in court, he had been suspended from his job, but his wife, friends and family had supported him. He had references from the rector of his local congregation and from the marriage and relationship counselling service which he had been attending.
Mr O'Braonáin asked the court to take into account the atypical nature of this case, the indications that he was unlikely to reoffend and his co-operation with the gardaí. He was prepared to do community service.
Judge Miriam Malone, after reading the counsellors' reports, said it concerned her that he was already attending counselling when this offence was committed. She wanted further psychological and psychiatric reports to be prepared by the State probation service before passing sentence. She remanded Mr Storey on continuing bail to May 8th.