The former owner of the Clara Lara children's fun park in Co Wicklow was sentenced to six months in prison for possession of child pornography at Wicklow Circuit Court yesterday.
Peter Morphew (63), Ballylug, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, who pleaded guilty, described his actions as "complete stupidity" and said he was now appalled at his behaviour.
He added that since being charged with the offences following a Garda raid on his home under Operation Amethyst, he had completely withdrawn from Clara Lara - the successful fun park he had established almost 20 years ago.
He pleaded guilty to possession of computer hardware containing child pornography at his home on May 27th, 2002. He also pleaded guilty to possession of a shotgun and two rounds of ammunition on the same date.
Sgt Mary Burgage told the court that she and a number of other gardaí went to Morphew's home with a search warrant. She said he was very co-operative and assisted them 100 per cent.
Mr Barry Hickson BL, for the State, read a cautioned memo made by Morphew on the day. He admitted accessing child pornography sites and said he had paid for some of the access.
It all started while he was browsing on the Internet and out of curiosity accessed a child pornography site, he said. The site featured teenagers.
He gave a credit card number to access the site and was charged $40. This gave him access to hundreds of images, his statement said. He described the images as "very explicit". He said he never spoke to anyone about accessing child pornography sites or paid anyone to send images by e-mail.
He told the garda on the day that his curiosity had absolutely not gone outside the Internet and he had no desire to.
Sgt Burgage told the court that when they had finished the interview she asked if there was anything else in the house. He then produced the sawn-off shotgun which he said was to defend himself against robberies, of which he had experienced several.
She said the gardaí had received no complaints concerning Morphew, who, she added, was held in very high regard in the community.
Garda Liam Coogan of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation said he found 1,189 images of child pornography in a temporary Internet files folder on the PC seized from Morphew's home. There were a further 11 deleted files found on a floppy disk.
He showed them to Judge Raymond Groarke on a laptop computer set up in the court. He described some of the images, which depicted children in sexually explicit scenes with adults and other children. Others involved children in pornographic poses. He said the children were under the age of 17 and some were under 10.
The garda said he found no evidence of any sort of trading of images.
Morphew said in evidence that he had been going through a bad patch at the time. He had got to a certain age. He was lonely, bored and depressed and was drinking more than he should have in the evenings, which was the time he did these things.
"I hope most people know that it's not me. I can't believe I did it. I can't say why I did it. I certainly wouldn't, couldn't do it again," he said. He said he had been attending a psychiatrist and the Granada Institute.
Two local people, Ms Mary Byrne and Mr Michael Ryan, gave evidence that they had known the defendant and respected him and that their children had worked in Clara Lara without difficulties.
Judge Groarke said that Morphew did not appreciate the hardship of the children engaged in the "utterly depraved" context. He said they were used, abused and dehumanised by the people who made their living from them and if the images were not purchased, this would not happen.
"It is a heinous trade, as every photograph depicts a crime against those most in need of protection," the judge stated. He accepted that there was a low risk of reoffending and that there had not been a complaint against the defendant.
Judge Groarke said that Morphew had been forced to step away from his business, his status in the community had been lessened and he had been placed on the sex offenders' register.
However, those engaged in such conduct must be aware that the punishment was swift and heavy.
He sentenced him to six months in jail on the child pornography charge. On the peripheral firearms charges he sentenced him to three months on each count to run concurrently.