‘Naive’ student shared child sexual abuse video

A student who shared a video containing child sexual abuse imagery on his Snapchat group acted immaturely and naively, believing at the time that what he was doing was a joke, a court has heard.

As Judge Sinéad Behan imposed a fully suspended sentence on 22-year-old Yahia Rfaai of Heron Court, Bandon, Co Cork, she acknowledged that he never searched for the items that had been shared with him on his Snapchat.

The student pleaded guilty to possession of five of the most serious category one images and five category one videos, along with some 43 category two images and some 29 category two videos.

The student has also admitted distributing one video by sharing it with others on Snapchat.

Judge Behan had remanded the accused in custody on February 10, but she imposed a suspended two-year sentence yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

The 22-year-old man said that he had no interest in the material and at the time when he shared it, he was trying to be funny.

The judge accepted that the accused man — who had no previous convictions — was naive and without sophistication in his actions and that he used his own email address in the matters.

Judge Behan commented that there were a lot of pro-social factors in the young man’s life, not least his progress in education.