A man who went to a shop looking for help to transfer child pornography from one phone to another has avoided a jail term.
David Sharpe (53) asked the shop assistant in the O2 store for help and handed him one Nokia phone which had an image of a child naked from the waist down as the background wallpaper.
Garda Vincent Heaney told Roisin Lacey, the prosecuting barrister, that when the staff member went to help him transfer images from this phone to another Nokia phone, he noticed similar images and became suspicious.
Sharpe, of Bremore Court, Balbriggan, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of child pornography at the 02 Store, Scotch Hall, Drogheda on June 13th, 2009. He has no previous convictions.
Judge Martin Nolan said he was satisfied a prison term was not justified before he sentenced Sharpe to three years which he suspended in full on strict conditions, including that he remain under probation supervision for 18 months.
He accepted that Sharpe, whom he described as naive, had not distributed, purchased nor shared the images and had therefore not supported the child pornographic industry.