Man (49) receives suspended sentence for possession of child sexual abuse material

Eimear Dodd and Declan Brennan

A man found in possession of 15 files of child sexual abuse material has been given an 18-month sentence, which was suspended for three years.

Austin Odibei (49), with an address at Milford Manor Ave, Clondalkin, Dublin 22, pleaded guilty to possession of child sexual abuse material, known in law as child pornography, in April 2019.

The investigating garda outlined to Shaun Smyth BL, prosecuting, that Google notified the relevant authority in America in March 2019 about the suspected presence of child abuse material on an individual's Google account.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that when this material is backed up to the cloud, monitoring systems make the notification. Gardaí were notified and a Google account and mobile number were linked to the defendant.

His home was searched in April 2019, while he was present. Several devices, including a phone and a camera, were seized during the search.

Garda analysis of the devices recovered 13 files of child abuse material, eleven videos and two images, were found on the memory card in the camera. Five of these files were placed in Category 1 child sexually explicit, with the remaining eight classified as Category 2 child sexual exposure.

Two further videos, classified as category one, were found on the phone, which belonged to the defendant.

The court heard the victims were not “identifiable”.

Judge Orla Crowe said that “the evil of child porn and the immense harm is such that it is the subject of utter revulsion by right-thinking people all over the world”.

She noted that Odibei had written a letter of apology and that the amount of material was small “relative to some other cases” that have come before the court.

She noted there were no criminal charges outstanding, and he has no relevant other convictions.

She imposed a custodial sentence for 18 months, which she suspended for three years on condition that Odibei keep the peace and be of good behaviour for three years.

The defendant had no previous convictions at the time of the search, but now has a small number of convictions for minor road traffic offences. The garda agreed with Kieran Kelly, defending, that it took some time for the devices to be analysed.

Kelly said his client instructs that he accepts responsibility for the material found on the camera, but says he was not involved in accessing or looking at it. The gardai said Odibei did not tell gardaí this at the time.

Addressing Judge Crowe, Kelly said his client accepts he had possession of the material on the camera, as it was found in the hot press of his house. He said his instructions are that the material on the phone was sent to his client.

A letter of apology was handed to the court. Kelly said Odibei is remorseful, apologetic and appreciates that this type of crime is not victimless.

He said his client has €1,000 as a token of remorse, which can be donated to charity.

Odibei is originally from Nigeria and moved to Ireland over ten years ago.