Sentencing of West Cork man in child abuse imagery case put back until May

The man caught with more than 35,000 child pornography images at his home in Clonakilty was remanded in custody until May as the sentencing judge enquired about what treatment facilities would be available in prison to deal with his issues.

Judge Sinead Behan said today: “I do think a prison sentence is merited because of the number and variety of images. But he should access services within prison to address is difficulties.” 

Ray Boland defence senior counsel said: “The significant thing is that he does acknowledge that he does need treatment.” 

Judge Behan said that Mr Boland had made a very good argument for the needs of the defendant to address his difficulties and the judge said that she was keen for this to be done rather that imprisoning him without regard for treatment.

The case was put back with Paul Quinlan in custody until May 20 for that purpose.

Detective Garda Brian Morris testified that officers of the Protective Services Unit of West Cork went to the home of 49-year-old Paul Quinlan at Tawnies Lower, Clonakilty, County Cork, on April 29, 2021, having received notification of the downloading of child pornography by the accused.

The detective said there was full cooperation in that he admitted to gardaí as soon as they arrived that he had child pornography and he also showed them the main computer on which pictures and videos were stored.

Over 35,000 images and 150 videos were found, of which the most serious category of material amounted to 4,896, the remainder being category 2. 

Category 1 relates to children witnessing or engaging in sex with adults. The second category is of exposure of anal or genital areas of children.

The detective said Paul Quinlan was not distributing the material but was searching for it, including dark web searches to obtain material.