Ex-Navy officer admits more child sex abuse material offences on bail

Tom Tuite

A former Royal Navy officer was again caught distributing child abuse material while on bail for possessing 10,000 images and 50 videos at his Westmeath home.

In December, electronic engineer Mark Barlow, 62, formerly of Killucan, was jailed for two years following a series of disturbing online chats in 2023 with an undercover police officer in Yorkshire about fantasies involving young girls and toddlers.

At Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday, the ex-Royal Navy officer confirmed his guilty pleas to fresh charges under the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act, for possessing and distributing more child abuse material between January 6th and 8th, 2025.

Defence counsel Stephen Byrne asked for an adjournment for an updated probation report on his client's rehabilitation. The defence confirmed that this was a subsequent incident committed while Barlow was on bail for his prior offence.

A pre-sentence report from that case described him as a low risk of re-offending, and when drafted, it took into account that he had new charges coming.

Judge Keenan Johnson adjourned sentencing until a date in May.

When Barlow was jailed in December at the same court, Judge Kenneth Connolly had said that he had to take into account the nature and vast amount of material featuring young girls aged six to mid-teens, which he described as "nothing short of disgusting".

The father-of-three was identified as a suspect after an initial investigation by Yorkshire and Humberside Police and Europol.

Barlow had been a user called Dave, with a screen name "Wow, that's tight" on an internet platform with indecent images of children.

From May 2nd to June 6th, 2023, he engaged with the undercover officer using the name Andrew.

The officer purported to be a paedophile father sexually abusing his children.

During a series of explicit exchanges, they discussed child sex abuse, which Barlow later told gardaí was "purely fantasy on his part".

The Internet Protocol (IP) number was traced to the accused's home, where gardaí attended on September 29th, 2023. They seized his laptop and tablet computers, and phones, which had an estimated 10,000 images and 50 videos of child abuse.

They were on the child explicit and child exposure scale, of girls, some featured engaging in sexual activity with males.

The court heard that he worked in the tech sector after 15 years in the navy and supported his family financially; however, his marriage had broken down.

Barlow, who had no prior criminal convictions, also told the investigating officers that he had been bored and away from home a lot due to work.

He had told the court he was appalled by his actions and had been attending therapy.