The Director of Public Prosecutions has ordered that a 45year-old Cork man who appeared at Midleton District Court yesterday on a number of child-sex offences should be tried by a judge and jury at the Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
The father of one was released on his own bail of £1,200 as well as an independent surety of £3,000 to appear again at Fermoy District Court on February 26th.
His name was not released to protect the identity of his alleged victim, a five-year-old who lived near him in east Cork, the court was told.
The man was charged with possessing and producing pornography and also with sexually assaulting a five-year-old girl and with using her for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
Three of the charges were brought under the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act, 1988, while a fourth was brought under the Criminal Law Rape Amendment Act, 1980.
He was arrested in the east Cork area on Sunday night following a Garda investigation involving the computer-fraud squad.
Insp Pat McCarthy said the Garda had no objection to bail being granted but asked for strict conditions. The DPP, he added, had instructed that the man be tried by judge and jury in the Circuit Criminal Court. Judge Michael Patwell said the charges before him were of a serious nature, particularly that which related to a five-year-old girl.
Granting bail, he ordered the accused to sign on daily at a local Garda station in Co Cork.