58-Year-Old Pleads Guilty To Garda's Largest Child Pornography Find

Sentencing will take place today of a man who had one of the largest collections of child pornography ever found by gardaí.

James Clarke had more than 130,000 images and videos on his computer, including images showing severe child sex abuse, bondage, cruelty and bestiality. The material was organised into computer folders by themes and individuals. Clarke had been using an internet site to offer the images to others.

58-year-old clarke of Devlis Cottages, Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, pleaded guilty to four counts of knowingly distributing child pornography on separate dates in August 2010, and to possession of child pornography.

Det Garda Cathal Delaney told Fiona McGowan, prosecuting, the files found on Clarke’s computer drives constituted “the largest collection of child porn” he had ever found up to that date.

He said the materials included sexual activity involving children with children, children with adults and children with animals. He said some of the victims were infants.

He said Clarke was using Gigatribe, a legitimate social networking site, to distribute these images. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Clarke would restrict access to his files to other users who were also sharing files.

Det Garda Delaney said warnings about sharing files and an invitation to others to “enjoy the files you use” was repeated in a number of languages.

Clarke’s computer drives held a total of 133,563 images and 1,992 videos of child pornography.

Judge Patricia Ryan said this was a very serious case, ordered a psychiatric report be produced for the court and remanded Clarke in custody at Arbour Hill for sentencing on October 26th.

(H/GK)