The minds of young men, who already had the potential to sexually abuse, are filled with "graphically pornographic images" through listening to telephone sex chatlines, a senior social worker has told the High Court.
Mr Kieran McGrath said he believed exposure to those lines became part of an addictive cycle for such young men. It was his experience that if they had already started to abuse exposure would make an escalation of the abuse very likely.
An affidavit from Mr McGrath was read to Mr Justice Kearns at the opening of an application by a Co Kildare company director, his partner, and her two children, for orders restraining the publication of the numbers of phone sex lines in the Eircom telephone directory.
The action has been taken by Mr Patrick O'Connor, Castle warden, Straffan, his partner, Ms Anne Ryan, and her children, Terri and Eoin Ryan. They are suing Eircom plc; Golden Pages Ltd, which has a contract to produce the directory; the Censorship of Publications Board; Ireland; and the Attorney General. The defendants are opposing the application.
Mr Justice Kearns was told yesterday on behalf of Eircom that a subscriber could get a bar to the use of the phone sex lines on their phone line by requesting one. Eircom says the numbers were published in the past three years' directories but Mr O'Connor did not begin correspondence until November 1999.
Mr Peter Finlay SC, with Mr Ross Maguire, for the plaintiffs, said the last two pages of the directory contained the numbers of sex chatlines. The lines were accessible to children. It was a matter of public concern that they should be available.
Ireland was the only country apart from Holland where sex chat-lines were listed in the way they were, counsel argued. They were only available in England to people over 19 who had to have personal PIN numbers. There were strict limitations in the UK.
Mr O'Connor, in an affidavit, said the pages in dispute contained numbers for services including dating, chatting, gay exchange, gay massaging, sexual advice, casual dating, and gay chatlines and dating. He was concerned about the lawfulness of the material and more particularly about the potentially harmful influence on the children.
In another affidavit, Mr David McRedmond, managing director (enterprises) with Eircom plc, said Eircom published the directory which was produced on its behalf by Golden Pages Ltd. The publisher could not inquire as to the nature of the services provided by subscribers or give a warranty in respect of any such services. The directory's purpose was to allow communication on the telephone network.
In place of that, the plaintiffs sought to place an intolerable and vague burden of censorship on Eircom where such matters should be provided for by law. Mr David McGonigle, chief executive of Golden Pages Ltd, said Golden Pages was contracted to publish about 1.82 million copies of the directory. Distribution was scheduled to commence on July 25th. If it was to be distributed as contracted for, printing must commence by July 9th.
Mr John McMenamin SC, for Golden Pages, said the plaintiff was coming before the court to assert a public right which only the Attorney General had a right to assert. The hearing continues today.