Suspended sentence for Dublin man with child porn images
A "pornography addict" who was caught with over 1,000 images and videos of children being raped and posing naked has been given a three-year suspended sentence at Dublin Criminal Court .
Sam Wiltshire (aged 31) printed off over 200 child pornography images in the photo developing shop where he worked. Gardaí also found he was sharing images over peer to peer networks using programmes such as Limewire.
Judge Tony Hunt told Wiltshire he should consider himself "extremely fortunate" to receive a suspended sentence and ordered him to continue his group psychotherapy treatment at the Granada Institute which treats sexual offenders.
Judge Hunt acknowledged Wilshire had come from a respectable family, had made efforts to rehabilitate himself and that most of the child porn material seized by gardaí had been at the lower end of the seriousness scale.
He also accepted that the material had been for personal use.
Wiltshire pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography at his Cedarbrook Walk home in Ballyfermot on December 12, 2008.
Detective Garda James O'Donnell told prosecuting counsel, Ms Melanie Greally BL, that an investigation in Holland into a child pornography website showed several Irish users of the site, including Wiltshire.
Search warrants were obtained for his home and his place of work in a pharmacy in Superquinn on Sundrive Road, Crumlin.
When gardaí called to his home, Wiltshire showed them his computer which contained the pornography. A large amount of computer equipment was seized which included a laptop, a computer hard drive and 16 CDs.
A holdall bag was also found at the rear of the house which contained 210 developed photos of naked children. Computer equipment was also seized from the pharmacy but no pornography was found on it.
Images and videos showing children as young as seven were found by the Garda Computer Crime Investigation Unit. Some of the videos showed adults raping young children, including oral and anal rape. Most of the pictures were of children aged 11 to 15 posing naked.
A large amount of the files were found in folders which were used for peer to peer sharing over the internet, meaning other users could have access to them. Emails by Wiltshire were also found which showed he was actively seeking this material on the internet.
Through his job at the pharmacy he had sole access to the photo processing equipment and printed off some of the images for his own use. Det Gda O'Donnell accepted that he was not interested in distributing the files.
Once the examination of his computers were complete, Wiltshire was arrested and interviewed. He admitted downloading the files but said he believed some of the children depicted in them were over 18. He said he was "addicted to all types of pornography" and "hoarded" everything he found on CDs.
The detective said Wiltshire was a single man who had the support of his family in court. He had left his job after the search and was now unemployed. He said he was very remorseful and had a history of depression and self-harm.
Mr Philipp Rahn BL, defending, said Wiltshire had co-operated fully with gardaí and had never been in trouble before. He said he had made great progress in treating his condition.
