A former AIB executive, youth soccer coach and scout leader who filmed young boys in sexual poses has been jailed for two and a half years by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
John Dunne (49) of The Birch, Riverdale, Dundrum, paid several boys from the Travelling community to pose naked and semi-naked.
Dunne pleaded guilty to three counts of possession and production of child pornography and five counts of using a child in the production of child pornography from July 1998 to August 2001.
Garda Det Sgt James Madden told Ms Mary Rose Gearty, prosecuting, that gardaí received information from Interpol and US postal inspectors suggesting Dunne had accessed child porno- graphy sites on the internet.
Gardaí found no evidence of Internet transactions in Dunne's bank records and conducted a search of his then home in Stillorgan on March 8th, 2002.
Photographs and negatives were found along with a computer, film and processing equipment.
Dunne made admissions to gardaí that he photographed and videoed children in sexual poses.
He said he met male children from the Travelling community in a park and gave them money to masturbate for the camera.
He photographed them naked and in various stages of undress. He also masturbated two of the children himself.
This occurred on numerous occasions over a three-year period with boys aged around 13. He also made admissions that he photographed children while on holiday in South Africa and India.
Det Sgt Madden said Dunne co-operated fully with gardaí and assisted their investigation. None of the five boys identified in the images made a complaint against Dunne and did not want to be involved in proceedings against him.
Det Sgt Madden told Judge Yvonne Murphy that the images were not at the more serious end of the scale of child abuse.
Mr Patrick Gageby SC, defending, said Dunne "appeared to be a pillar of the community until the veil was taken away and he was revealed to be engaging in the sordid business of taking naked pictures of young boys and gratifying himself in the privacy of his own home".
Mr Gageby said there was no suggestion of circulation of the material.
Dunne had been a successful football coach at Saint Patrick's Athletic Football Club and a scout leader in Britain, but there had been no complaints from these institutions concerning his behaviour and no suggestion he abused his positions.
Mr Gageby said his client had lost his job as a sales and marketing manager at AIB due to the charges against him and resigned in disgrace from all community groups.
Dr Davina Walsh of the Granada Institute said Dunne had received 430 hours of therapy since March 2002 and had remorse and real insight into the impact of his actions.
She said his risk of re-offending was low.
Judge Murphy imposed concurrent sentences of two and a half years for five counts of using a child in the production of pornography, two years for production of child pornography and a suspended two years for possession of such material.
She placed Dunne, a single man and first-time offender, on the sex offenders' register and directed that he remain under supervision for two years following his release.