A 63-year-old man was caught with sexually explicit images of children on his laptop after a… facebook The ‘inappropriate image’ warning has been activated, a court has heard.
idan Scanlon told gardaí that he did not know he had the illegal images on his laptop in August 2016. He yesterday sentenced him to a full one-year jail term suspension, saying he was “not likely to repeat himself”.
Scanlon pleaded guilty to the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for possession of five child pornography images in his Navan Road home on 28 August 2016.
Detective Garda Shane Behan then told Fiona McGowan BL that Gardaí received a warning from Facebook after a user uploaded an inappropriate image to the social media site.
Gardaí traced the email address associated with the Facebook account to Scanlon’s home and was given a search warrant to search the property.
Scanlon was not at home when Gardaí searched his home and confiscated his laptop in August 2016, but he voluntarily went to a Garda station in October of that year.
Gda Behan told the court that five illegal images of young boys under the age of 12 had been found on Scanlon’s laptop.
The court heard that Scanlon told Gardaí that he lived alone and that the laptop and email address belonged to him. However, he disputed that he was “knowingly” in possession of child pornography, Gda Behan said.
Scanlon was arrested in May 2019 and although he initially took a trial date, he indicated he intended to plead guilty and did so three months before his scheduled trial. He had no previous convictions.
Garda Behan agreed with Garrett Casey BL, defending that Scanlon had found the experience of appearing in court “chastisement and alarming” and had not come to Garda’s attention since this offense. His client wanted to apologize to the court.
Judge Nolan ordered Scanlon to keep the peace and behave well for a year.
